* 


.-r 


•v 


••  SUCCESS 

IN  LETTER  WRITING 

BUSINESS  AND  SOCIAL 


BY 

SHERWIN  CODY 

AUTHOB  OF  u  THE  ART  OF  WHITING  AND  SPEAKING 

THB  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE,"  EDITOB  OF  "THB 

WORLD'S  BEST  "SERIES,  ETC. 


SIXTH  EDITION 


CHICAGO 
A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO. 

1913 


COPYRIGHT 

A.  C.  MCCLURG  &  CO, 

1906 

Published  Jane  25,  1906 
Second  Edition,  December  20, 1906 
Third  Edition,  July  22, 1907 
Fourth  Edition,  April,  1903 
Fifth  Edition,  March,  191 1 
Sixth  Edition,  March,  1&13 


W.  F.  HALL  PRINTING  COMPANY,  CHICAGO 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

PREFACE  .          .          .          .          .          .     vii 

PART    I 

BUSINESS  LETTER  WRITING 
CHAPTER 

I.     ESSENTIALS  OF   SUCCESS  IN  BUSINESS 

LETTER  WRITING    .          .          .17 

II.      FORMS  AND  CUSTOMS  IN  LETTER  WRIT- 
ING         35 

III.     THE  PROPER  STYLE  IN  LETTER  WRIT- 
ING, AND  How  TO  GAIN  FLUENCY     53 

IV.     THE    BUSINESS  VALUE  OF    CORRECT 

ENGLISH          .          .          .          .83 

V.     MODEL  LETTERS  .          .          .          .91 
VI.     FOLLOW-UP  SYSTEMS        .         .         .107 

VII.     DEALING  WITH   HUMAN    NATURE  BY 

MAIL  115 


CONTENTS 

PART    II 

SOCIAL  LETTER  WRITING 
CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     FORMS  AND  CUSTOMS  IN  SOCIAL  COR- 
RESPONDENCE .          .          .133 

II.      How  TO  BE  AGREEABLE  IN  A  SOCIAL 

LETTER  .          .          .          .153 

III.  How  TO  DECLINE  WITHOUT  OFFENCE  165 

IV.  How  TO  MAKE  AND  KEEP  FRIENDS  .   175 

V.     How  MEN  SHOULD  WRITE  TO  WOMEN 

FRIENDS          .          .          .          .185 

VI.     MEN'S  LOVE  LETTERS,    THEIR   POS- 
SIBILITIES AND  LIMITATIONS         .   195 

VII.     WOMEN'S  LOVE  LETTERS         .         .  203 
VIII.     MODEL  LETTERS  OF  FRIENDSHIP         .   215 


PREFACE 


PREFACE 

rTjHE  days  when  people  wrote  charming 
•*•  long  letters  to  their  friends  are  past,  for 
the  newspapers  nowadays  tell  all  the  news  and 
describe  the  many  minor  happenings  of  the  world 
we  like  to  know  about. 

For  all  that,  letter  writing  is  a  finer  and 
more  important  art  to-day  than  it  ever  was  in 
the  past.  Cheap  postage  lays  open  the  entire 
country,  even  the  most  inaccessible  village,  to 
every  man,  woman,  or  child  who  can  write  a 
letter.  We  are  learning  the  art  of  shopping  in 
New  York,  Chicago,  and  San  Francisco  on  the 
same  day,  and  important  businesses  are  set  up 
in  New  Mexico,  Maine,  and  Alaska,  whose 
customers  may  be  in  Florida,  Hawaii,  or 
Philadelphia. 

And  then  in  a  social  way,  why  should  we 
be  limited  in  the  society  we  enjoy  by  the  con- 
fines of  a  small  village  or  a  single  city  clique, 
ix 


PREFACE 


when  we  can  make  friends  and  enjoy  them  by 
mail  in  the  great  centres  of  the  entire  world? 
Why  should  our  school  advantages  be  limited 
when  we  can  study  with  the  greatest  teachers 
in  New  York,  London,  or  Paris  ? 

The  one  thing  to  open  all  these  gateways 
is  to  know  how  to  talk  fluently  and  correctly 
on  paper,  and  make  people  do  what  one  de- 
sires by  the  words  one  writes.  This  is  the  fine 
and  delicate  art  of  letter  writing. 

So  far  as  I  know  there  has  never  been  printed 
a  book  which  actually  tells  how  to  deal  with 
human  nature  by  mail,  that  really  puts  the  stu- 
dent in  the  way  to  succeed  in  letter  writing.  In 
fact,  nothing  is  more  certain  to  produce  failure 
than  to  follow  the  directions  of  the  books  which 
profess  to  teach  the  art.  They  belong  to  an 
ags  that  is  gone.  There  is  in  them  no  sugges- 
tion of  the  new  art  that  has  been  making  such 
rapid  progress  during  the  past  ten  years. 

The  present  volume  is  in  part  the  outgrowth 
of  a  somewhat  unusual  experience,  which  the 
author  may  be  pardoned  for  narrating. 


PREFACE 


Quite  a  number  of  years  ago,  while  con- 
nected with  a  newspaper  that  was  trying  to  as- 
sist its  readers  in  an  educational  way,  the  author 
became  aware  of  a  wide  popular  demand  for 
instruction  in  this  art  of  expression  for  practi- 
cal purposes.  A  series  of  lessons  was  prepared, 
which  were  tested,  found  useful,  and  finally 
put  forth  in  book  form. 

When  the  books  were  printed  they  had  to 
be  sold.  One  day  a  friend  offered  to  print  a 
page  advertisement  of  the  books  at  his  own 
expense,  in  a  business  men's  magazine,  and 
furnished  the  heads  for  the  advertisement. 
The  page  was  written  and  printed,  and  brought 
nineteen  two-dollar  orders  the  first  day,  and 
several  hundred  dollars '  worth  within  a  month. 

One  might  suppose  that  after  this  it  was 
only  necessary  to  print  the  advertising  and  take 
in  the  dollars.  No  mistake  could  be  greater. 
Each  different  magazine  required  a  different 
statement.  One  error  in  statement  might  cost 
one  hundred  to  three  hundred  dollars,  and  such 
errors  did  many  times  result  in  loss, 
xi 


PREFACE 


Circular  letters  were  tried.  One  letter  cost 
twenty-five  dollars  to  send  out  and  brought  noth- 
ing back.  Another  did  little  better.  Then  one 
brought  fifty  dollars  and  the  loss  was  made  good. 
This  letter  was  used  month  after  month  with 
fair  profit.  One  day  the  advertiser  thought  of 
another  method  of  statement,  formulated  it  in  a 
letter,  and  multiplied  the  cash  returns  by  three. 

It  takes  an  experience  like  this,  in  which  the 
value  of  every  word  is  measured  in  dollars,  to 
make  one  fully  realize  what  an  immense  power 
lies  in  written  expression. 

When  it  became  known  that  the  author  of 
these  books  had  not  only  given  forth  his  theory, 
but  was  making  successful  tests  of  his  own  powers 
in  selling  what  he  had  written,  the  heads  of  im- 
portant business  houses,  who  were  already 
widely  successful,  came  to  him  to  get  help  to 
become  still  more  successful.  Some  did  in- 
crease their  business  many  thousands  of  dol- 
lars. The  advice  was  formulated  into  a  system, 
a  series  of  cards,  which  proved  their  worth  by 
helping  to  raise  salaries  and  augment  incomes, 
xii 


PREFACE 


As  my  "System  in  Business  Correspond- 
ence and  Advertisement  Writing"  was  prepared 
for  successful  business  men  who  wish  to  per- 
fect themselves  in  the  technique  of  dealing  with 
human  nature  by  mail,  and  so  get  more  money 
for  themselves  or  for  those  who  employ  them, 
so  this  volume  has  been  prepared  as  a  sort  of 
introduction  to  the  entire  subject  of  letter  writ- 
ing, for  all  who  wish  to  succeed  in  making  peo- 
ple do  things  by  the  words  they  write  on  a  piece 
of  paper.  Here  will  be  found  stated  the  fun- 
damental elements  of  a  great  subject,  the  start- 
ing points,  the  outlook,  the  requirements  for 
success.  The  subject  is  too  large,  the  art  too 
technical,  to  be  taught  in  a  few  easy  lessons.  The 
boy  in  school  may  exhaust  his  text-books,  but 
when  he  gets  into  the  shop  or  the  laboratory 
he  finds  that  he  must  begin  all  over  again  from 
an  entirely  different  point  of  view. 

But  this  book  is  one  that  all  may  understand 

and  profit  by,   however  many  or  however  few 

letters  may    have    to    be    written.     Numerous 

business  men   who  write  many   letters  do   not 

xiii 


PREFACE 


even  know  what  a  power  is  within  their  reach 
or  that  a  real  science  of  letter  writing  exists. 
For  such,  a  reading  of  this  book  should  be 
helpful.  The  novice,  on  the  other  hand,  sus- 
pecting that  letter  writing  with  success  is  not  so 
easy  as  it  seems,  will  find  out  what  the  diffi- 
culties are  and  how  to  begin  to  meet  and 
overcome  them. 

SHERWIN  CODY. 
CHICAGO,  May  1,  1906. 


xiv 


PART  I 

BUSINESS  LETTER  WRITING 


SUCCESS    IN    LETTER 
WRITING 


CHAPTER  I 


ESSENTIALS    OF    SUCCESS    IN    BUSINESS 
LETTER    WRITING 


rTlHE  growth  of  the  mail-order  business  in 
**•  the  United  States  during  the  past  five 
years  has  been  enormous.  Two  concerns  in 
Chicago  doing  an  exclusive  mail-order  busi- 
ness handle  over  twenty-five  million  dollars  a 
year  each.  But  the  important  thing  is  that 
almost  all  mercantile  houses  are  now  trying  to 
develop  a  mail-order  branch.  They  find  that 
they  can  get  business  by  mail  at  less  expense 
than  they  can  by  travelling  salesmen.  Even 
the  book  canvasser  is  giving  way  to  the  can- 
vassing letter.  One  large  subscription  book 
17 


fttf  ffiffisfs-:;i;N    LETTER   WRITING 

concern  in  New  York,  handling  only  very  high- 
priced  sets  of  books  on  the  instalment  plan, 
does  its  entire  business  by  mail,  without  a  single 
personal  solicitor.  Of  course  over  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  a  year  is  spent  in  magazine 
advertising;  but  the  final  success  of  the  busi- 
ness depends  on  the  skill  with  which  the  letters 
are  written. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  business  letters  writ- 
ten, —  mere  memorandum  notes,  and  letters 
which  are  intended  to  do  the  work  of  the  per- 
sonal visitor.  These  memorandum  notes,  such 
as  are  sent  when  a  check  is  mailed,  an  item  of 
information  required,  or  an  order  given,  would 
be  more  satisfactory  if  they  were  written  on 
special  memorandum  slips  instead  of  on  letter- 
heads, after  the  manner  now  so  generally  adopted 
of  sending  orders  on  special  order  blanks.  Then 
they  would  not  become  confused  with  real  let- 
ters, which  should  be  works  of  art  to  win  a  cus- 
tomer and  get  his  business.  It  is  of  this  artful 
letter  writing  that  I  am  going  to  speak  in  this 
chapter. 

18 


ESSENTIALS     OF     SUCCESS 

Keeping  Out  of  the  Wastebasket 
The  art  of  getting  business  by  mail  cannot 
be  said  to  be  a  new  one,  for  it  has  been  practised 
ever  since  the  development  of  the  post-office. 
The  trouble  has  been  that  circular  letters  go  into 
the  wastebasket  and  do  no  good.  Business  men 
have  only  recently  begun  to  find  out  how  to  keep 
their  communications  away  from  the  waste- 
basket. The  mechanical  production  of  things 
that  look  like  letters  is  only  the  first  step  in  the 
true  art  of  letter  writing. 

That  letter  writing  is  an  important  business 
is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  there  are  some  three 
thousand  business  schools  in  the  country,  and 
at  least  as  many  more  small  typewriting  schools, 
turning  out  from  twenty-five  to  one  thousand 
graduates  apiece  every  year,  a  total  of  many 
thousands,  each  capable  of  writing  at  least  ten 
thousand  letters  a  year. 

The  marvellous   fact  is,  however,  that  of  all 
these  thousands,  scarcely  one  becomes  a  really 
efficient  letter  writer.     The  standard  of  Amer- 
ican letters  is  preposterously  low. 
19 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

Poor  Stenographers 

A  prominent  business  man,  who  has  em- 
ployed a  great  many  stenographers,  wrote  to 
me  the  other  day,  "Ninety  per  cent  of  steno- 
graphers are  disqualified  for  their  work  by  their 
poor  use  of  English.  As  a  class  they  are  stand- 
ing still  and  grumbling  because  many  of  them 
have  to  work  for  pitifully  small  salaries."  The 
stenographer  fails  because  he  cannot  write  even 
a  correct  English  letter.  How  far,  how  very 
far  is  that  from  a  successful  business-getting 
letter! 

Because  stenographers  are  so  poorly  edu- 
cated, and  are  so  often  devoid  of  mental  capa- 
city for  conducting  correspondence  on  their 
own  responsibility,  correspondents  are  chosen 
from  among  accountants,  clerks,  and  salesmen. 
They  have  the  business  instinct,  but,  as  a  rule, 
know  nothing  of  such  matters  as  punctuation 
or  even  spelling,  and  leave  the  English  of  their 
letters  and  all  minor  details  of  form  and  cor- 
rectness entirely  to  their  stenographers. 

It  will  therefore  be  seen  that,  while  business 
20 


ESSENTIALS     OF     SUCCESS 

letter  writing  as  a  profession  has  immense  pos- 
sibilities, from  the  fact  that  so  much  business  is 
now  being  done  by  mail,  the  profession  of  the 
business  letter  writer  is  in  its  infancy,  —  scarcely 
developed  at  all. 

Big  Salaries  for  Correspondents 

To-day  the  big  salaries  in  the  commercial 
world  are  paid  to  the  salesmen,  who  get  from 
two  thousand  to  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year. 
The  salaries  of  correspondents  at  present  sel- 
dom exceed  the  lowest  of  these  figures;  but  the 
reason  is  that  there  are  no  good  correspondents 
available  to  whom  the  business  man  can  afford 
to  pay  more.  Usually  the  important  letter  writ- 
ing has  to  be  done  by  the  head  of  the  house  him- 
self. Advertising  men  are  sometimes  paid  high 
salaries,  and  they  undertake  to  write  important 
letters;  but  too  often  they  do  not  understand 
the  difference  between  a  display  advertisement 
and  a  personal  letter.  So,  while  the  profession 
of  advertisement  writing  has  developed  rapidly 
and  successfully,  the  profession  of  business  let- 
21 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER    WRITING 

ter  writing  is  still  a  matter  of  the  future.  The 
writer  believes  that  the  time  will  come,  and  not 
far  in  the  future,  when  the  display  advertisement 
writer  will  be  subordinate  to  the  business  letter 
writer,  or  when  advertisement  writing  will  be 
but  a  branch  of  the  larger  profession  of  "pub- 
licity. " 

Since  there  is  no  School  of  Business  Letter 
Writing  which  really  does  anything  to  teach  the 
art  and  the  profession  as  such,  an  ambitious 
young  man  or  woman  must  educate  himself 
or  herself.  We  will  now  try  to  indicate  how  this 
self-education  may  be  carried  on. 

Self-Education 

First,  letters  should  be  correct  in  form.  This 
is  a  matter  primarily  for  the  stenographer. 
Second,  letters  should  be  written  in  simple, 
effective  English,  which  will  produce  the  same 
effect  on  the  reader  as  personal  conversation. 
Third,  the  correspondent  should  become  a  stu- 
dent of  human  nature  as  revealed  in  letters, 
and  should  learn  to  write  one  kind  of  letter  to 
22 


ESSENTIALS     OF     SUCCESS 

one  kind  of  person,  and  another  kind  of  letter 
to  another  kind  of  person.  Fourth,  he  should 
have  a  well-developed  system  in  letter  writing, 
so  that  each  letter  in  a  series  will  perform  its 
own  office,  and  the  campaign  as  a  whole  will 
be  as  artfully  devised  as  a  military  manoeuvre. 
Fifth,  he  will  master  each  detail  by  itself,  and 
do  it  so  thoroughly  that,  when  he  comes  to  dic- 
tating one  hundred  or  two  hundred  letters  a  day, 
he  can  make  every  one  a  masterpiece,  because 
each  will  be  but  a  new  combination  of  elements 
he  has  carefully  worked  out  in  advance. 

Grammar  in  Business 

In  the  first  place,  why  need  a  business  let- 
ter be  correct  ?  A  few  years  ago  we  often  heard 
business  men  say,  "  What  do  I  care  for  the  gram- 
mar of  a  letter,  so  long  as  it  gets  the  business  ? " 
Now  business  men  quite  generally  recognize 
that  grammar  is  an  important  element  in  get- 
ting business.  Grammar  is  the  science  of  the 
logical  relationship  of  words  in  sentences.  If 
words  are  not  put  together  grammatically,  they 
23 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

fail  to  express  the  meaning  clearly.  Bad  gram- 
mar and  confusion  are  one  and  the  same.  So, 
too,  the  man  who  does  not  punctuate  his  letters 
correctly  fails  to  express  his  meaning  quite  com- 
pletely. The  impression  on  the  mind  of  the 
reader  is  not  quite  so  clear  and  sharp.  An 
incorrect  letter  is  like  a  slightly  blurred 
photograph.  You  can  tell  whom  the  hazy 
photograph  represents,  but  a  picture  that  is 
startlingly  clear  and  sharp  has  a  vast  commer- 
t  cial  advantage  over  one  that  is  not. 

A  few  errors  of  punctuation  and  grammar 
in  one  letter  do  not  matter  much,  but  the  same 
errors  in  a  hundred  letters,  accumulating  one 
on  top  of  another,  weigh  vastly  in  the  final  suc- 
cess of  a  business.  Successful  men  recognize 
this,  and  now  the  largest  retail  store  in  the  world 
pays  one  dollar  for  each  error  in  English  any 
one  of  its  employees  finds  in  any  of  the  printed 
matter  issued  by  the  house.  Already  many 
other  business  houses  are  following  this 
example  in  one  way  or  another.  The  most 
striking  evidence  in  the  matter  is  the  fact  that 
24 


ESSENTIALS     OF     SUCCESS 

stenographers  who  can  write  correct  English 
may  get  twice  the  salaries  paid  to  ordinary 
stenographers.  The  president  of  a  concern  in 
Minneapolis  widely  known  all  over  the  country, 
employing  fifty  stenographers,  said  publicly 
not  long  ago,  "If  all  my  stenographers,  clerks, 
salesmen,  etc.,  would  learn  to  write  correct 
and  effective  business  letters,  they  would  be 
worth  twenty-five  per  cent  more  to  me,  and 
I  should  be  willing  to  pay  the  full  value  of  their 
services. "  We  believe  that  the  average  steno- 
grapher could  get  his  or  her  salary  raised  by 
dint  of  patient  study  of  correct  English  during 
a  period  of  six  months. 

What  is  Good   Business   English? 

The  correct  English  that  counts  is  that  which 
makes  the  expression  clearer  and  sharper.  Some 
grammarians  try  to  impose  arbitrary  rules, 
taboo  idioms, —  the  life  of  the  language, —  and 
would  teach  a  literary  style  to  the  letter  writer  in 
place  of  the  colloquial  style  absolutely  required 
for  success  in  business  letter  writing.  It  is  well 
25 


SUCCESS     IN      LETTER     WRITING 

to  follow  the  best  cultivated  usage,  but  an 
expression  generally  used  by  educated  people 
is  good  enough  for  a  stenographer,  even  if 
philologists  do  condemn  it. 

There  has  gradually  grown  up  in  commer- 
cial circles  a  peculiar  language  employed  in 
business  letters  only.  In  every  other  sentence 
we  find  "  beg  to  advise, "  "  in  regard  to  same, " 
"we  note,"  or  one  of  a  curious  collection  of 
clipped  phrases  from  which  all  the  small 
words  have  been  omitted,  as  in  a  telegram. 
I  call  this  the  "  commercial  jargon. "  It  is 
well  enough  understood  in  strictly  business 
circles,  and  was  not  especially  objectionable 
when  business  correspondence  was  merely  an 
exchange  of  notes  or  memoranda  between 
houses.  Now  when  business  men  deal  di- 
rectly with  the  ordinary  person  in  the  outside 
world,  who  is  familiar  only  with  conversational 
English,  this  commercial  jargon  is  injurious 
in  the  extreme.  It  gives  a  stiff,  formal,  mean- 
ingless cast  to  a  letter,  which  takes  away  every 
winning  quality. 

26 


ESSENTIALS     OF     SUCCESS 

A  Conversational  Style 

I  cannot  repeat  too  often  that  the  style  in 
which  a  business  letter  ought  to  be  written  is 
that  of  a  simple,  natural  conversation.  The 
successful  letter  writer  must  have  imagination, 
so  that  he  can  see  his  customer  sitting  before 
him,  and  in  his  letter  can  talk  to  that  imaginary 
person  just  as  a  good  salesman  would  face  to  f 

Then  the  correspondent,  who  talks  to  his 
customer  in  a  letter,  must  be  himself  an  expert 
salesman.  Unless  he  has  the  innate  qualities  of  a 
salesman  he  will  not  succeed  as  a  correspondent. 

However,  the  man  who  is  successful  as  a 
personal  salesman  may  fail  altogether  in  letter 
writing;  and  a  quiet  man  of  imagination,  whose 
figure  is  small  or  ungainly  and  whose  manner 
is  not  prepossessing,  or  who  lacks  the  glib  tongue 
of  a  ready  talker,  may  make  the  best  possible 
salesman  in  letters.  The  art  of  talking  effect- 
ively and  the  art  of  writing  effectively  are  very 
different  indeed.  One  calls  for  many  words 
uttered  rapidly,  and  much  depends  on  the  man- 
ner and  personal  appearance;  the  other  calls 
27 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

for  few  words  artfully  chosen.  In  the  letter 
writer  we  see  the  embryo  manager,  who  is  more 
likely  to  get  to  the  head  of  the  business  than 
the  successful  salesman,  whose  mercurial  tem- 
perament has  its  drawbacks.  So  the  good  letter 
writer  will  be  a  free,  effective  talker  on  paper. 

But  this  is  not  the  whole  of  business  letter 
writing. 

Knowledge  of  Human   Nature 

Success  depends  on  knowledge  of  human 
nature,  and  a  tactful  adaptation  of  the  letter  to 
the  unseen  customer.  Plainly,  the  writer  must 
have  imagination,  so  that  he  can  see  in  his  mind's 
eye  the  person  he  is  addressing, —  thousands  of 
miles  away,  perhaps. 

It  is  a  curious  thing  that  letter  writers  get 
into  the  habit  of  writing  letters  all  of  a  length, 
very  nearly.  A  man  who  is  a  fluent  letter 
writer  will  dictate  long  letters,  and  a  man  who 
prides  himself  on  condensation  will  write  very 
brief  ones.  The  display  advertisement  writer 
especially  is  likely  to  think  that  the  terse  and 
epigrammatic  is  the  only  effective  style. 


ESSENTIALS    OF     SUCCESS 

The  good  letter  writer  will  learn  to  write 
very  short  and  snappy  letters  to  those  who  want 
short  and  snappy  letters,  and  long  and  detailed 
letters  to  those  who  want  long  and  detailed  let- 
ters. A  few  words  will  perhaps  make  a  man 
pay  out  fifty  cents  or  a  dollar  for  something  he 
wants,  but  the  adventurous  spirit  who  thinks 
he  can  get  from  fifteen  to  one  hundred  dollars 
from  the  average  man  by  a  short  letter  will  find 
he  has  made  a  great  mistake.  A  long,  detailed, 
argumentative  letter  is  required. 

A  farmer  will  usually  be  glad  to  read  any 
long  letter  that  comes  to  him,  while  you  probably 
could  n't  get  a  busy  business  man  even  to  glance 
through  such  a  one  unless  he  were  already 
deeply  interested.  The  art  of  interesting  such 
a  man  with  short  letters  till  he  is  ready  and  eager 
to  read  long  ones  is  part  of  the  fine  art  of  suc- 
cessful correspondence. 

The  personal  salesman  plans  his  campaign 

against   a   new    customer   with    instinctive    art, 

for,  when  the  psychological  moment  arrives  for 

a  hard  push  he  feels  that  it  has  come,  and  makes 

29 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

the  push.  The  correspondent  works  more  or 
less  in  the  dark.  Modern  American  letters  are 
defective  in  not  getting  more  responses  from 
the  customer,  so  that  the  letter  writer  may  know 
how  his  canvass  is  progressing,  and  what  to 
do.  Again,  the  letter  writer  forgets  what  he 
has  said  in  an  earlier  letter,  neglects  to  write 
during  long  periods,  and  seldom  thinks  much 
of  making  one  letter  lead  the  way  for  another 
and  help  it  to  make  its  effect.  Suppose  a  busi- 
ness man  cannot  be  gotten  to  read  a  long  let- 
ter, yet  a  long  story  is  to  be  told  him;  he  must 
be  given  that  story  in  artful  instalments,  each 
short  enough  so  that  he  will  read  it.  Success 
in  this  branch  of  the  subject  depends  largely 
on  good  systems  and  filing  devices, — broad 
enough  to  cover  the  circumstances  fully,  and 
simple  enough  to  be  used  readily  and  constantly. 
Most  filing  systems  are  so  complicated  and 
awkward  that  they  can  be  used  but  little,  and 
so  they  defeat  their  own  purposes.  System  in 
mechanical  departments  is  a  great  thing,  and 
American  business  men  are  showing  their 
30 


'ESSENTIALS     OF     SUCCESS 

appreciation  of  its  value.  But  system  in  the 
composition  of  letters  is  just  as  important,  —  if 
anything,  more  so. 

System  in  Letter  Writing 

System  in  composition  of  business  letters 
will  enable  a  correspondent  to  write  one  hundred 
letters  a  day  and  make  every  one  of  them  a 
masterpiece.  Let  me  try  to  give  you  some  idea 
of  how  it  can  be  done. 

Let  a  correspondent  select  the  class  of  persons 
he  most  often  addresses,  and  an  actual  letter  of 
the  general  type  he  writes  most  often.  Let  him 
study  that  letter  word  by  word,  spending  hour 
after  hour  upon  it.  Let  him  write  it  and  rewrite 
it  in  every  possible  way  till  the  best  way  is  found. 
Not  only  find  one  good  way,  but  several.  Take 
time  enough  to  master  that  one  letter  in  all  its 
phases.  Then  take  up  another  letter,  of  another 
class.  Master  that  in  the  same  patient  way. 
In  a  few  months  the  whole  field  of  one's  cor- 
respondence will  have  been  worked  over. 

While  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  copy  a  satis- 
31 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

factory  letter,  making  it  a  mere  form,  certain 
sentences,  phrases,  and  words  may  be  used 
many  times,  being  combined  a  little  differently 
in  each  letter.  Demosthenes  did  something  of 
this  sort,  as  did  all  the  famous  Greek  orators. 
He  had  a  book  containing  fifty  or  more  stock 
perorations,  or  form  paragraphs,  which  we  find 
used  repeatedly  throughout  even  his  greatest 
orations,  though  very  often  with  suitable  vari- 
ations. The  same  general  plan  is  admirably 
adapted  to  the  requirements  of  business  letter 
writing,  and  it  is  the  only  plan  which  will  permit 
the  writing  of  one  hundred  good  letters  a  day, 
for  so  large  a  number  of  strictly  original  com- 
positions is  out  of  the  question. 

Specializing 

Business  letter  writing  has  its  different  de- 
partments," each  of  which  must  be  studied  care- 
fully and  mastered.  It  is  seldom  that  one  man 
can  handle  all  these  departments  at  the  same 
time  successfully.  Whenever  it  is  possible,  spe- 
cialization is  desirable ;  and  it  will  be  well  for 


ESSENTIALS     OF     SUCCESS 

the  ambitious  young  man  to  specialize.  In  a 
mail-order  business,  there  is  the  display  adver- 
tisement, —  one  type  of  composition ;  then  there 
is  the  detailed  follow-up  letter, —  another  type; 
then  there  is  the  polite  and  fascinating  handling 
of  all  inquiries.  Often  something  will  go 
wrong,  and  complaining  customers  must  be  dealt 
with  in  a  diplomatic  way  so  that  their  custom 
will  continue,—  a  most  important  department 
in  all  mail-order  business;  and  collections  must 
be  made,  and  they  require  a  special  series  of 
letters  quite  unlike  anything  that  has  gone  be- 
fore. One  may  make  his  fortune  by  excelling 
in  any  one  of  the  three  departments, — solicit- 
ing letters,  complaint  letters,  or  collection  letters. 
I  hope  I  have  said  enough  to  convince  the 
ambitious  young  aspirant  that  business  letter 
writing  is  not  so  simple  as  it  seems.  One  might 
use  with  success  all  the  talent  and  skill  of  a  great 
and  successful  novelist,  and  still  find  many  fields 
unworked.  Genius  and  talent  have  full  scope; 
but  training  and  hard  work  also  bring  their  sure 
reward  in  this  as  in  all  other  fields  of  business. 
33 


CHAPTER  II 

FORMS  AND  CUSTOMS  IN  LETTER 
WRITING 


CHAPTER  II 


FORMS    AND    CUSTOMS    IN    LETTER 
WRITING 

T1USINESS  letter  writing  has  its  etiquette 
^""^  as  well  as  everything  else.  One  of  the  first 
things  a  business  man  looks  at  when  he  receives 
a  letter  is  the  arrangement  of  the  opening 
lines. 

The  address  of  the  person  writing  should 
appear  first,  with  the  date.  This  shows  the  time 
and  place  of  writing  the  letter,  and  unless  the 
habit  is  formed  of  always  putting  this  in  first, 
the  full  address  is  liable  to  be  overlooked  al- 
together and  the  person  receiving  the  letter  will 
not  know  where  to  send  his  reply.  Thousands 
of  dollars,  to  say  nothing  of  letters  not  con- 
taining money,  go  to  the  dead-letter  office  and 
the  senders  are  never  discovered,  simply  be- 
cause they  forget  to  attach  their  addresses. 
37 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

How  to  Begin  a  Business  Letter 
The  conventional  order  of  the  items  is:  (1), 
street  number  and  street;  (2),  town;  (3),  county, 
if  necessary;  (4),  State;  (5),  date.  Never  begin 
this  line  much  to  the  left  of  the  centre  of  the 
page.  It  is  very  bad  taste  to  begin  near  the 
left-hand  side  of  the  page  and  sprawl  the  date- 
line clear  across.  Put  a  comma  after  each  item 
as  numbered  above,  periods  after  the  abbre- 
viations, and  a  period  at  the  end  of  the  line. 

Then  in  a  formal  business  letter  the  full 
name  of  the  person  addressed  should  follow, 
beginning  flush  with  the  left-hand  margin, 
and  his  address  should  come  in  the  next  line,  be- 
ginning half  an  inch  to  an  inch  from  the  margin. 
Do  not  let  this  line  go  much  beyond  the  mid- 
dle of  the  page.  To  sprawl  an  address  clear 
across  the  page  is  considered  bad  taste.  In 
modern  usage  it  is  customary  to  use  only  a 
short  address,  as  the  town  or  city  and  State, 
without  street  number.  Two  lines  may  be  used 
for  this  address  if  necessary,  the  second  starting 
half  an  inch  farther  to  the  right  than  the  first. 
38 


FORMS     AND     CUSTOMS 

The  Correct  Title 

If  the  person  addressed  is  a  man,  "  Mr. " 
should  always  precede  the  name,  or  "  Esq. " 
follow  it.  Writing  "  H.  G.  Adair, "  for  example, 
without  any  title,  is  considered  rude  and  un- 
polished. It  is  like  entering  a  private  house 
without  taking  your  hat  off.  "  Esq. "  is  used 
dtifer  the  name  of  a  lawyer  very  frequently,  and 
in  England  literary  men  and  others  who  are 
regarded  as  in  the  class  of  "  gentlemen, "  are 
addressed  with  "Esq.,"  while  tradesmen  and 
the  like  are  addressed  as  "  Mr. " 

If  the  name  of  a  single  man  is  followed  by 
"  &  Co.,"  or  two  partners  or  brothers  consti- 
tute the  firm,  "  Messrs. "  should  always  be 
used. 

If  "  The  "  is  properly  the  first  word  in  a  com- 
pany name,  as  "The  Jones  Company,"  "The 
Central  Express  Company,"  no  title  is  required 
according  to  American  usage,  though  in  Eng- 
land "Messrs."  would  still  be  used,  as  in 
"Messrs.  Jones  Company,"  etc. 


SUCCESS      IN     LETTER     WRITING 

In  Writing  to  Women 

If  the  name  is  that  of  a  woman,  "Mrs. " 
should  be  used  in  addressing  a  married  woman 
and  "Miss"  (no  period,  because  "Miss"  is 
not  an  abbreviation)  before  the  name  of  an  un- 
married woman.  If  it  is  not  known  whether 
the  woman  is  married  or  single,  the  writer  has 
to  choose  between  two  alternatives,  the  risk  of 
making  himself  ridiculous  by  choosing  the 
wrong  title  and  that  of  seeming  to  be  impolite 
by  not  using  any  title.  A  woman  in  writing  to 
a  stranger  should  place  "Miss"  or  "  Mrs." 
before  her  own  name  in  parenthesis  (omission 
of  the  parenthesis  is  considered  vulgar).  In  the 
best  business  houses  no  title  is  used  in  ad- 
dressing a  woman  if  it  is  not  known  whether 
she  is  married  or  single.  The  name  is  written 
exactly  as  it  is  signed. 

If  several  ladies  are  addressed  together,  the 
title  "Mmes.,"  the  abbreviation  for  Mesdames, 
is  appropriate. 

There  is  some  choice  as  to  the  proper  punc- 
tuation after  the  name  and  address  of  the  party 
40 


FORMS     AND     CUSTOMS 

to  whom  you  are  writing.  If  the  address  ends 
with  a  State,  abbreviated,  the  period  following 
the  abbreviation  seems  to  be  sufficient.  If  there 
is  no  abbreviation,  either  a  period  or  nothing 
at  all  is  most  commonly  used,  but  the  proper 
punctuation  is  a  semi-colon,  it  appears  to  the 
writer,  and  this  he  habitually  uses.  A  comma 
is  always  required  after  the  name  at  the  end  of 
the  first  line. 

The  next  line  contains  the  salutation,  which 
should  be  written  flush  with  the  left-hand  mar- 
gin, not  indented  like  a  paragraph. 

Capitalizing  "Sir"  and  "Madam' 

"Dear  Sir"  is  the  proper  form  in  writing  to 
one  man,  "Gentlemen"  in  writing  to  a  com- 
pany, and  "  Dear  Madam "  in  writing  to  a  lady 
whether  married  or  single.  "  Dear  Sirs  "  would 
be  appropriate  in  writing  to  a  list  of  individ- 
uals, and  formerly  it  was  used  in  addressing  a 
company.  Now  it  is  looked  on  as  antiquated, 
and  it  is  best  not  to  use  this  plural,  though  it  is 
still  seen  occasionally  and  taught  in  some  books. 
41 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

It  is  the  almost  universal  custom  to  capi- 
talize "Sir"  and  " Madam."  This  is  a  relic 
of  the  time  when  all  titles  of  address  were  capi- 
talized. Now  we  never  capitalize  "sir"  or 
"madam"  in  the  body  of  a  sentence,  and  there 
seems  to  be  no  good  reason  for  doing  it  in  a 
salutation.  If  one  chooses  not  to  use  the  capital, 
he  will  not  be  criticised. 

The  Salutation 

The  salutation  should  be  followed  by  a 
colon,  colon  and  dash,  comma,  or  comma  and 
dash.  The  colon  and  dash  are  the  most  com- 
mon marks,  but  careful  letter  writers  now  omit 
the  dash  on  the  ground  that  it  is  entirely  use- 
less. In  England  a  comma  is  almost  universal. 
In  this  country  the  comma  and  dash  seem  going 
out  of  use,  except  in  social  letters.  The  Amer- 
ican letter  writer  of  the  future  will  doubtless 
use  the  colon  alone. 

Careless  writers  frequently  begin  letters  thus: 

Mr.  Smith 

Dear  Sir:    I  received  your  note,  etc. 

42 


FORMS     AND     CUSTOMS 

This  presents  a  very  careless  and  vulgar  appear- 
ance. The  salutation  should  always  come  flush 
with  the  left-hand  margin,  and  there  should  be 
at  least  two  lines  of  the  address,  so  that  there 
will  be  an  indented  line  between  the  name 
(flush  with  the  margin)  and  the  salutation  (flush 
with  the  margin). 

The  following  forms  will  serve  to  summarize 
what  has  been  said  about  the  beginning  of  a 
letter: 

Alpena,  Mich.,  Apr.  10, 19 — . 
Mr.  J,  D.  Trail, 

Springfield,  111. 
Dear  Sir: 


15  Charing  Cross, 

London,  W.  C.,  Eng.,  Apr.  20,  19—. 
Messrs.  Jones    &  Brown, 

New  York. City,  U.  S.  A. 
Gentlemen : 

43 


SUCCESS  IN  LETTER  WRITING 

700  Columbia  Road,  N.  W., 
Washington,  D.  C.,  June  9,  19—. 
The  Central  Express  Company, 

Chicago. 
Gentlemen : 


Rae  Bldg.,  Chicago,  May  3,  19 — . 
Mrs.  Morton  Stevenson, 

Portman  Square,  London. 
Dear  Madam : 


Appleton,  McPherson  Co.,  Wis., 

April  29,  19—. 
Miss  Sarah  Banning, 

2025  Drexel  Boulevard,  Chicago. 
Dear  Madam : 


The   Body  of  a  Letter  % 

In  business  letter  writing  a  liberal  margin 
should  always  be  left  on  both  sides.  Leaving 
no  margin  or  a  very  small  one  looks  stingy. 
Many  stylish  letter  writers  like  to  leave  a  very 
wide  margin,  amounting  to  half  the  solid 


FORMS     AND      CUSTOMS 

portion  of  the  letter.  If  the  letter  is  long  and 
is  carried  down  near  to  the  bottom  of  the  page, 
this  excessive  margin  at  left  and  right  spoils 
the  proportions. 

Paragraphs  should  always  be  indented 
about  an  inch,  never  less  than  three-quarters 
and  never  more  than  an  inch  and  a  half.  Some 
people  indent  their  paragraphs  hardly  at  all, 
while  others  begin  them  quite  near  the  right- 
hand  margin.  Both  these  habits  are  very  bad 
form.  Beginning  paragraphs  flush  with  the 
left-hand  margin  is  not  paragraphing  at  all. 

There  is  great  difference  of  opinion  whether 
the  first  word  after  the  salutation  should  be 
indented  the  same  as  a  paragraph,  or  should 
begin  just  below  the  end  of  the  salutation.  In 
typewriting  it  is  most  usual  simply  to  turn  the 
machine  up  one  notch  and  go  on  without  mov- 
ing the  carriage  to  left  or  right,  and  this  is 
logically  the  correct  method.  Since  the  saluta- 
tion is  followed  by  a  colon,  the  paragraph 
may  be  considered  to  have  begun  with  the 
name  of  the  person  addressed.  Those  who 
45 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER      WRITING 

choose  to  begin  the  body  of  the  letter  as  a  new 
paragraph  have  ample  authority,  however. 

It  is  always  desirable  in  replying  to  a  letter 
to  mention  the  date  in  some  way,  especially  if 
there  is  the  slightest  chance  for  confusion  be- 
tween several  different  letters.  Letters  are  com- 
monly identified  by  their  dates. 

Avoid  Stereotyped   Phrases 

The  .  stereotyped  "  Answering  your  letter  of 
the  26th  inst.,"  "Replying  to  your  esteemed 
favor  of  the  19th  of  January,"  "Acknowledging 
your  favor  of  the  17th  ult.,"  etc.,  though  long 
used  and  still  commonly  found,  are  now  being 
abandoned  by  all  good  letter  writers  for  an  easy, 
incidental  method  of  bringing  in  the  date.  It  is 
desirable  in  a  business  letter  to  get  at  once 
into  the  subject  of  the  letter.  Begin  therefore  at 
once,  saying,  for  instance,  "We  are  very  glad 
indeed  to  say  that  we  have  the  plough  described 
in  your  favor  of  the  19th,  and  shall  be  pleased 
to  send  it  promptly  on  receipt  of  an  order  from 
you";  or  "Thank  you  for  your  kind  offer  in 
46 


FORMS     AND     CUSTOMS 

your  letter  of  the  10th,  just  at  hand.  We  ap- 
preciate,"  etc.;  or  "We  regret  to  say  we  cannot 
accept  the  offer  made  in  yours  of  the  7th,  as  we 
have  just  placed  an  order,"  etc. 

When  no  possible  good  purpose  is  served 
in  mentioning  the  date,  it  should  be  omitted. 

There  are  certain  words  and  phrases  which 
hitherto  have  been  found  almost  exclusively 
in  letter  writing.  Among  them  are  "We  beg 
to  advise,"  "Referring  to  same,"  "We  hand 
you  herewith,"  etc.  Good  letter  writers  now 
make  it  a  rule  never  to  use  a  word  or  phrase  in 
writing  a  letter,  if  possible,  that  would  not  be 
used  in  a  personal  conversation.  The  effect 
of  a  letter  should  be  that  of  a  short,  concen- 
trated talk,  and  anything  that  interferes  with 
that  impression  is  bad.  A  polite  salutation  at 
the  beginning,  and  an  equally  polite  close,  take 
the  place  of  the  bow  with  which  a  salesman 
enters  and  leaves  a  private  office.  But  no  sales- 
man would  begin  to  announce  his  business  in  a 
jargon  which  only  an  experienced  business  man 
could  understand.  He  tries  to  be  as  natural 
47 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

and  colloquial  as  possible,  and  to  make  his  cus- 
tomer feel  at  ease.  The  letter  writer  should 
do  the  same. 

The  Close 

The  proper  complimentary  close  for  a  busi- 
ness letter  should  be  either  "  Yours  truly, " 
"Truly  yours,"  "Very  truly  yours,"  or,  at  the 
utmost,  "  Cordially  yours.  "  "  Sincerely  yours  " 
should  be  reserved  for  letters  of  friendship. 
"Respectfully  yours"  is  too  formal  and  old- 
fashioned  except  in  special  letters  when  great 
deference  is  desired.  It  is  not  considered  in 
good  taste  now  in  ordinary  business  letter  writing. 

The  complimentary  close  should  begin  not 
quite  half  way  across  the  page,  and  the  first  let- 
ter should  always  be  a  capital.  Observe  that 
the  subsequent  words  never  begin  with  capital 
letters.  To  begin  other  than  the  first  word  with 
a  capital  letter  is  looked  on  as  a  sign  of 
ignorance. 

When  a  letter  is  ended  with  some  compli- 
mentary sentence  such  as,  "Trusting  we  may 
hear  from  you  shortly,  we  are  Yours  truly," 
48 


FORMS     AND     CUSTOMS 

no  comma  should  appear  after  "  are. "  It  is 
indeed  not  at  all  necessary  to  express  "we  are" 
or  "  I  am  "  in  a  case  like  this,  since  these  words 
are  so  clearly  implied,  and  seem  to  be 
awkwardly  in  the  way.  "With  best  wishes, 
Cordially  yours, "  is  enough  of  a  sentence  for  its 
purpose,  and  so  is  "Thanking  you  for  your 
order,  Yours  truly,"  since  in  both  cases  the 
verb  is  so  clearly  implied  one  may  look  on  it  as 
really  there  for  all  grammatical  purposes. 

Novelties  in  Letter  Writing 

Various  fads  may  be  observed  from  time  to 
time,  and  are  not  objectionable  when  used  with- 
in limits.  Some  people  write  the  address  at 
the  head  of  a  letter  with  every  line  flush  with 
the  margin,  including  the  salutation.  There 
is  no  objection  to  this,  but  the  regular  form  is 
the"  best  for  daily  use  year  in  and  year  out. 

Omitting  all  punctuation  marks  is  likely 
to  lead  to  confusion,  and  such  a  practice 
should  not  be  indulged  in. 


49 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

The  Envelope 

The  address  on  the  envelope  should  be  nicely 
proportioned,  and  each  succeeding  line  begun  a 
little  farther  to  the  right.  If  the  address  is 
long,  one  line  may  be  placed  in  the  lower  left- 
hand  corner,  thus: 


Miss  Sarah  Hammersley, 

15  Woolwich  Road, 

Beverley  Common, 
England.  London,  W.  C. 


There  is  no  special  objection  to  omitting 
the  commas  at  the  ends  of  the  lines,  or  to  plac- 
ing all  the  lines  flush  with  the  beginning  of  the 
first  one.  It  looks  very  bad,  however,  to  per- 
mit a  lower  line  to  come  farther  to  the  left  than 
the  first  line,  unless  it  is  an  unusually  long  one. 

The  stamp  should  be  put  always  in  the  upper 
right-hand  corner,  for  putting  it  elsewhere  on 
50 


FORMS     AND     CUSTOMS 

an  envelope  greatly  inconveniences  the  post- 
office  clerks.  The  address  of  the  sender  should 
always  be  placed  in  the  upper  left-hand  corner, 
so  that  if  the  letter  miscarries  it  can  be  returned 
to  the  sender  without  going  to  the  dead-letter 
office.  In  polite  correspondence  the  return  ad- 
dress is  often  placed  on  the  flap  at  the  back 
of  the  envelope. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  PROPER  STYLE  IN  LETTER 

WRITING,  AND  HOW  TO 

GAIN  FLUENCY 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  PROPER  STYLE  IN  LETTER  WRITING, 
AND  HOW  TO  GAIN  FLUENCY 

nnHE  writing  of  business  letters  is  appar- 
•*•  ently  a  simple  matter,  for  millions  of  peo- 
ple are  writing  them  every  day.  In  certain 
lines  of  business,  however,  highly  skilled  •  cor- 
respondents are  sought,  and  secured  by  high 
salaries.  More  skilled  correspondents  would 
be  employed  if  they  were  to  be  found,  or  if 
business  men  realized  how  much  business  a 
poor  correspondent  can  turn  away.  Business 
letter  writing  can  be  learned  as  certainly  as  steno- 
graphy or  any  recognized  business  calling,  and 
without  doubt  the  strictly  professional  letter 
writer  should  be  paid  according  to  his  ability. 
First  of  all,  a  business  letter  should  be  strictly 
grammatical.  Many  business  letters  are  not  so; 
but  even  the  illiterate  would  soon  perceive  the 
55 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

difference,  and  without  knowing  why,  would  pre- 
fer the  business  man  who  seemed  by  his  letters 
to  be  master  of  what  he  professed. 

The  simple  graces  of  rhetoric  and  a  trained 
style  would  also  prove  useful,  in  spite  of  the 
limited  range  which  business  letter  writing  seems 
to  have.  Every  letter  writer  often  feels  that  he 
would  like  a  freer  use  of  words.  This  is  noth- 
ing more  or  less  than  the  ability  which  results 
from  cultivating  style  according  to  the  princi- 
ples of  practical  rhetoric. 

Construction  of  Business  Letters 

But  full  knowledge  of  words,  grammar,  and 
the  principles  of  composition  will  not  alone  make 
a  good  business  letter  writer.  This  branch  of 
composition  has  features  peculiar  to  itself.  The 
principles  which  govern  it  may  be  stated  briefly 
as  follows: 

1.     Know  the  man  to  whom  you  write.     No 

man  can  write  a  good  business  letter  unless  he 

understands  the  person  to  whom  he  is  writing 

from  top  to  toe.     In  most  cases  he  has  never  seen 

56 


STYLE     AND     FLUENCY 

this  person.  If  he  is  replying  to  a  letter  before 
him,  he  can  form  some  idea  of  the  writer  from 
the  character  of  this  letter,  including  the  hand- 
writing if  the  letter  is  written  by  the  person 
who  composed  it.  For  the  rest,  he  must  judge 
the  person  from  his  general  knowledge  of  the 
class  to  which  he  most  probably  belongs.  In 
any  case,  the  character  of  the  person  to  whom 
the  letter  is  sent  wholly  determines  the  form 
of  the  letter,  and  even  what  is  to  be  said.  Knowl- 
edge of  the  reader  is  the  first  requirement  of  all 
composition,  and  it  would  be  well  for  the  writers 
of  fiction,  and  all  other  writers,  if  they  realized 
it  as  the  business  letter  writer  must. 

2.  Never  write  a  longer  letter  than  will  be  read. 
It  goes  without  saying  that  unless  a  letter  is 
going  to  be  read,  it  is  not  worth  writing.  Coun- 
try people  usually  have  plenty  of  time,  and  like 
to  read  long  letters;  busy  city  men  and  women 
have  not  the  time  to  read  long  letters,  and  simply 
will  not  do  it.  It  is  folly  to  write  a  longer  let- 
ter than  the  recipient  will  read,  however  impor- 
tant the  topic  or  extensive  the  subject.  If  much 
57 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

is  to  be  said  and  it  is  important  that  each  point 
should  receive  due  consideration,  a  separate  letter 
should  be  written  to  cover  each  important  item. 

3.  How  to  Condense.  All  letters  are  neces- 
sarily severely  limited  in  length,  and  the  most 
important  principle  of  composition  for  letter 
writers  to  master  is  condensation.  This  may  be 
secured,  positively  and  negatively,  in  various 
ways,  as  follows: 

(a.)  By  omitting  all  details  that  the  recipient 
of  the  letter  may  reasonably  be  supposed  to  know 
already. 

(b.)  By  suggesting  and  implying  in  the  choice 
of  words  and  forms  of  the  sentences  as  much  as 
possible. 

(c.)  By  stating  important  matters  so  forcibly 
that  the  reader  will  be  forced  (or  rather  induced) 
to  think  out  the  unspoken  details  for  himself. 
This  is  the  hardest  of  all  to  do. 

Two  Classes  of  Business   Letters 

There  are   two   general  classes  of   business 
letters:  those  which  give  information  asked  for, 
58 


STYLE     AND     FLUENCY 

and  those  intended  to  induce  people  to  buy 
goods.  Usually  in  replying  to  specific  inquiries 
there  will  be  an  excellent  opportunity  to  throw 
in  a  word  of  persuasion. 

1.  Replies  to  Questions.  In  replying  to  let- 
ters asking  for  information  a  full  statement  of 
all  the  facts  is  highly  desirable.  If  a  person  has 
asked  a  question,  he  will  be  interested  to  read 
the  reply  all  through.  The  general  tendency  of 
business  men  is  to  shorten  such  letters  unduly. 
As  a  rule,  such  letters  should  be  rather  long.  It 
is  a  mark  of  courtesy  which  is  appreciated,  and 
the  business  man  never  knows  when  his  reputa- 
tion for  courtesy  will  bring  him  a  big  order,  or 
when  his  reputation  for  crabbedness  or  the  indif- 
ference which  brevity  indicates  will  send  a  highly 
profitable  order  to  some  other  firm.  Moreover, 
the  man  of  sound  business  principles  will  give 
as  much  attention  to  small  inquiries  and  small 
orders  as  to  large  ones,  for  there  is  no  telling  when 
the  small  buyer  will  become  the  large  buyer;  to 
say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  most  fortunes  have 
been  made  through  large  numbers  of  small  sales. 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

2.  Circular  Letters.  On  the  other  hand,  let- 
ters which  are  designed  to  stimulate  business  or 
secure  orders,  that  is,  which  are  more  or  less  ad- 
vertising circulars,  are  very  likely  to  be  too  long, 
and  so  they  are  not  read  and  only  feed  the  waste- 
basket.  The  fault  is  almost  universal,  and  it  is 
notoriously  fatal.  The  seller  is  full  of  his  sub- 
ject, full  of  arguments.  He  could  talk  for  an 
hour,  two  hours,  all  day.  It  is  therefore  very 
hard  for  him  to  confine  himself  to  a  few  words 
judiciously  spoken. 

We  present  two  or  three  samples  of  well  writ- 
ten letters  taken  from  actual  correspondence. 

Letter  from  a  Mail-order  House.  The  first 
letter  which  we  present  was  sent  out  by  a  large 
and  very  successful  mail-order  house  in  reply  to 
an  inquiry  from  a  country  man  who  thought 
of  buying  a  buggy,  and  in  his  letter  speaks  of 
various  other  articles. 

CHICAGO,  Jan.  6, 19 — . 
DEAR  SIR: 

We  have  received  your  favor  of  the  4th  inst., 
stating  that  you  have  decided  to  purchase  our 
60 


STYLE     AND     FLUENCY 

No.  42  buggy.  We  wish  to  commend  your  selec- 
tion. By  ordering  this  buggy  of  us  you  will  save 
no  less  than  $15.00,  for  it  cannot  be  duplicated 
elsewhere  at  $15.00  above  our  price. 

We  note  that  there  are  several  changes  you  de- 
sire in  it,  and  we  are  pleased  to  state  that  we 
can  make  all  of  these  changes  and  the  substitu- 
tions you  desire  without  extra  charge,  except  as 
follows:  The  price  of  No.  42  buggy  with  J 
leather  top  is  $42.80,  according  to  the  catalogue 
quotation.  For  leather-covered  bows  there  will 
be  an  extra  charge  of  $3.00;  for  making  the  dash 
without  the  nickled  rail,  but  with  a  hole  in  each 
top  corner  as  shown  in  No.  60  Peerless,  there 
would  be  an  extra  charge  of  50c.  Dark  green 
cushions  trimmed  in  velour  maroon-colored  vel- 
vet to  match  the  gear  would  be  75c  extra. 

We  repeat  the  specifications : 

No.  42  buggy  with  J  leather  top,  Armstrong 
single  loop  springs ; 

Piano  body  —  22  x  54  or  24  x  54  in.; 

Bailey  body  loops ; 

Thousand-mile  axles; 
61 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER    WRITING 

One-inch   wheels    compressed,    hob    style; 

Rubber  step  pads; 

Four  leather-covered  bows ; 

Leather-covered  prop  nuts; 

Division  dark  green  cushions  trimmed  in  vel- 
our  maroon  velvet  to  match  gear; 

Gear  painted  maroon  and  striped  in  some  suit- 
able way; 

Leather  backstays; 

Rubber  side  curtains  and  storm  apron ; 

Buggy  to  have  shafts,  no  tongue. 

The  total  price  for  this  buggy  according  to 
these  specifications  is  $47.05,  strictly  net,  free  on 
board  cars  at  Chicago. 

We  shall  not  get  the  buggy  ready  until  we 
hear  from  you,  because  the  price  is  a  few  dollars 
more  than  you  thought  it  would  be,  and  because 
you  omitted  to  inclose  any  money.  We  do  not 
accept  orders  for  C.  O.  D.  shipments  unless  a 
sufficient  amount  is  enclosed  with  the  order  as 
a  guarantee  of  transportation  charges  both  ways, 
and  as  an  evidence  of  good  faith  on  the  part  of 
our  customer.  As  we  are  making  no  exception 
62 


STYLE     AND     FLUENCY 

in  your  case,  but  treat  all  of  our  customers  alike, 
we  hope  you  will  order  the  buggy  promptly  in 
the  regular  way,  and  understand  our  position  in 
the  matter. 

The  shipping- weight  of  this  buggy  is  about  425 
Ibs.  and  our  Transportation  Division  will  inclose 
with  this  letter  information  enabling  you  to  de- 
termine what  it  will  cost  for  freight  laid  down 
at  your  nearest  receiving-point. 

The  word  "  corded  "  in  the  description  of  the 
buggy  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  bows 
but  refers  to  the  seams  in  the  top  lining.  You 
know  how  a  coat  looks  with  corded  seams;  well, 
the  lining  in  the  top  of  buggy  is  made  in  this 
way.  It  makes  a  nicer  finish. 

We  are  glad  to  know  that  if  this  buggy  suits 
you,  your  mother  will  want  one  also. 

You  are  also  interested  in  double  Harpoon  Hay 
Fork,  and  we  would  refer  you  to  No.  5513  at  68c 
and  No.  5517  at  $1.00  each.  These  are  fully  de- 
scribed and  quoted  in  our  general  catalogue.  For 
wood  pumps  we  refer  you  to  page  100  of  our  cat- 
alogue. 

63 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

As  we  are  not  sure  that  you  have  our  latest 
catalogue,  we  are  sending  you  under  separate 
cover  sections  C  and  E,  and  hope  you  will  be  able 
to  make  selections  that  will  be  entirely  satis- 
factory in  every  way.  All  our  catalogue  prices 
are  strictly  net,  cash  to  accompany  order,  for 
goods  free  on  board  cars  at  Chicago,  unless  other- 
wise specified.  We  hope  that  our  quotation  and 
information  on  the  buggy  will  be  satisfactory, 
and  that  we  may  be  favored  with  your  order  in 
due  time.  We  promise  to  give  the  order  our  very 
best  attention,  and  look  forward  with  interest  to 
your  reply. 

Yours  truly, 

JONES,  SMITH  &  Co. 

A  Circular  Letter.  Some  time  ago  the  author 
received  a  letter  in  imitation  typewriting,  on 
stylish  note-paper,  in  a  stylish  envelope.  The 
imitation  of  typewriting  was  so  good  that  few 
would  recognize  the  difference  between  the  ac- 
tually typewritten  address  and  the  printed  body 
of  the  letter,  did  not  the  great  length  of  the 
64 


STYLE    AND     FLUENCY 

letter  suggest  at  once  that  it  must  be  printed.  The 
advertising  manager  who  sent  out  this  circular 
letter  would  never  have  dreamed  of  actually 
writing  with  the  typewriter  so  long  a  letter  as 
this,  and  he  should  have  known  that  this  fact 
would  be  apparent  to  any  shrewd  reader.  The 
letter  was  addressed  to  a  college  alumnus,  who 
in  all  probability  would  be  a  very  busy  person; 
so  in  any  case  it  was  too  long  to  be  read. 

Two  things  should  have  been  kept  in  view  by 
the  writer  of  this  letter:  First,  the  attention  of 
the  reader  must  be  secured.  This  could  have 
been  done  by  a  very  short,  simple  letter,  worded 
somewhat  as  follows :  "  Dear  Sir:  —  If  you  wish  to 

get  the  Dictionary  at  half  price  and  on 

very  easy  terms,  you  will  be  interested  in  the  in- 
closed offer  to  graduates  of  Amherst  College.  The 
offer  is  so  remarkable  that  we  shall  reserve  a  set 
of  this  dictionary,  cyclopedia,  and  atlas  combined, 
in  your  name  until  we  can  hear  from  you,  and 
beg  that  you  will  do  us  the  courtesy  of  replying 
promptly  to  this  letter.  By  mailing  the  inclosed 
postal  card  you  will  receive  full  information  by 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

return.  Very  truly  yours,  — .' '  Second,  it 

was  of  course  desirable  to  have  full  information 
within  easy  reach  in  case  there  was  the  faintest 
glimmer  of  interest.  Once  started,  the  interest 
might  grow  through  fostering,  and  perhaps  it 
was  well  to  present  an  argument  on  the  spot; 
but  this  should  have  been  included  in  a  printed 
circular.  Such  a  circular  was  inclosed;  but  the 
amount  of  matter  given  in  both  letter  and  circu- 
lar was  excessive.  After  the  postal  card  asking 
for  further  information  had  been  returned,  the 
advertiser  might  have  sent  everything  he  had  to 
offer. 

Except  for  this  feature,  the  letter  was  admir- 
ably written. 

Some  time  afterwards  another  letter  was  sent, 
what  is  technically  known  as  a  "  follow-up  "  let- 
ter. It  supposed  that  some  impression  had  been 
made  by  the  first  letter.  If  such  was  the  case, 
an  argument  was  in  place  and  a  long  letter  was 
justifiable.  Here  is  the  letter,  and  it  is  a  model 
of  its  kind. 


66 


STYLE     AND     FLUENCY 

A  "Follow-up"  Letter. 
DEAR  SIR: 

Not  having  heard  from  you  in  answer  to  our 
letter  making  you,  as  an  Alumnus  of  Amherst 
College,  a  special  offer  on  the  The  Dic- 
tionary and  Cyclopedia  and  Atlas,  we  again  ad- 
dress you,  and  as  before  we  inclose  a  postal  card 
and  ask  you  to  return  it  to  us.  We  address  you 
again  for  the  following  reasons : 

First. — The  enormous  sale  — 130,000  sets  — 
convinces  us  that  The has  come  to  be  rec- 
ognized as  a  necessity  in  every  home  and  office. 

Second. —  The  plan  of  The is  such  a 

radical  improvement  on  that  used  in  other  ency- 
clopedias that  it  is  now  conceded  to  be  a  distinct 
advance  over  all  other  works  of  reference  and 
as  such  is,  we  should  think,  worthy  of  your  in- 
vestigation. 

Moreover,  many  graduates  of  your  College 
have  already  ordered  the  work,  and  their  letters 
testify  to  its  wonderful  value.  We,  therefore,  now 
advise  you  that  we  have  secured  the  entire  edition 
of  the  1902  issue.  This  contains  the  series  of 
67 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

handsome  colored  plates,  showing  birds,  flowers 
fishes,  precious  stones,  trees,  etc.,  which  have 
been  included  in  the  work  for  the  first  time.  As 
you  will  see  from  the  inclosed  sample,  they  are 
printed  in  the  same  degree  of  mechanical  excel- 
lence that  characterizes  every  department  of  The 

.     This  work  is  used  more  than  all  other 

reference  works  combined,  and  if  you  like  we  can 
give  you  the  names  of  people  you  know  who  own 
and  use  it,  for  we  sell  it  on  its  merits. 

We  can  tell  you  how  professional  men  use  The 
,  how  they  find  in  it  practical  informa- 
tion not  to  be  found  in  their  text-books. 

Or  we  can  show  you  how  the  business  man, 

limited  as  to  his  time,  finds  in  The an 

ever-present  help,  its  unique  system  of  arrange- 
ment placing  all  facts  at  his  instant  dis- 
posal. 

Or  we  can  demonstrate  that  to  the  man  or 
woman  whose  opportunities  for  self-culture  and 
advancement  are  meagre,  The  -  -  is  the 
equivalent  of  a  working  library  of  many  hun- 
dreds of  volumes. 

68 


STYLE     AND     FLUENCY 

Or  we  can  tell  you  of  the  school  child,  or  stu- 
dent, who  uses  The and  thus  gains  an 

immense  advantage  over  those  who  do  not  have 
access  to  it. 

What  we  desire  is  to  have  you  investigate  our 
offer.  This  does  not  mean  subscribing.  All  we 
want  is  the  opportunity  of  explaining  to  you  by 
letter  what  we  consider  the  best  book  offer  ever 
made. 

We  forward  the  complete  set  on  receipt  of  the 
initial  payment  of  $1.00,  and  the  balance  may  be 
paid  in  small  monthly  amounts. 

As  we  are  still  carrying  your  name  on  our 
mailing  list,  we  inclose  a  card  which  we 
ask  you  to  use  in  advising  us  if  we  shall  cross 
your  name  off,  or  send  you  a  descriptive  book 

of  The  ,  containing  colored  plates,  maps, 

and  samples  pages,  with  full  information  of  our 
half-price  offer.  May  we  ask  the  prompt  return 
of  the  card  ? 

Yours  very  truly, 

ARTHUR  BROWN. 
NEW  YORK,  Jan.  26,  19—-.  Per  J. 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

An  Artful  Business-bringing  Letter.  The 
following  letter,  sent  out  by  a  New  York  pub- 
lisher, is  highly  artful  and  skilfully  worded. 
This,  too,  was  a  facsimile  of  a  personal  type- 
written letter,  filling  an  entire  page.  It  is  much 
shorter  than  the  dictionary  letter,  though  it  is  still 
too  long.  It  was  one  in  a  series  of  similar  let- 
ters judiciously  calculated  to  rouse  and  retain  the 
interest  of  the  recipient,  and  that  fact  gave  evi- 
dence that  the  writer  of  the  letter  appreciated 
the  value  of  giving  one  idea  at  a  time,  in  order 
not  to  overburden  the  reader;  but  he  did  not 
carry  his  principle  quite  far  enough.  The  letter 
should  be  reduced  by  one-third. 

NEW  YORK,  Feb.  4,  19—. 
MESSRS.  HENRY  MILLS  &  Co., 

JOLIET,  ILL. 
GENTLEMEN  : 

As  you  are  fully  aware,  the  circulation  of  The 

is  gained  by  the  arrangements  we  have 

perfected  with  hundreds  of  small  publishers  in 

the  smaller  towns  throughout  the  United  States 

70 


STYLE     AND     FLUENCY 

to  club  the  magazine  with  their  newspaper.  The 
-  has  been  so  remarkably  well  received  by 
the  people  in  these  small  communities  and  rural 
districts,  as  to  make  it  impossible  for  us  to  fill  the 
demands  for  our  January  and  February  issues, 
notwithstanding  that  we  printed  a  quarter  of  a 
million  copies  of  each. 

In  view  of  this  great  demand  our  edition  for 
March  and  future  issues  until  further  notice  will 
be  half  a  million  copies,  and  we  guarantee  that 
these  copies  will  properly  reach  that  number  of 
families,  the  best  of  the  mail  buying  class. 

Let  us  say  now  and  emphatically  that  this  is 
not  a  free  distribution;  that  the  magazine  is  not 
a  supplement  to  any  newspaper;  that  the  maga- 
zine is  not  circulated  by  department  stores  or 
other  stores.  It  is  an  independent  publication 
issued  independently  in  each  of  the  small  towns, 
and  is  advertised,  specially  featured,  and  in  other 
ways  given  wide  publicity  according  to  the  pro- 
gressiveness  of  the  publisher  handling  it.  Our 
method  of  securing  circulation  is  merely  the  ap- 
plication of  the  principle  that  if  one  man  can 
71 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

accomplish  certain  results,  a  thousand  men  prop- 
erly directed  should  accomplish  a  thousand  times 
as  much  as  the  first  man. 

Space  in  the  March  issue  will  cost  $2.00  per 
line  for  black  advertising,  and  $2.50  per  line  for 
color  advertising.  If  you  are  looking  for  the 
most  effective  advertising  in  the  mail-order  line, 
advertising  that  is  bringing  large  returns  to  the 
most  particular  advertisers,  this  is  your  oppor- 
tunity. We  specially  recommend  a  color  display 
for  those  looking  for  quick  returns.  Proofs  of 
circulation  will  be  furnished  at  any  and  all 
times;  pro  rata  reduction  in  cost  of  advertising 
should  our  circulation  not  be  as  claimed.  Can 
you  ask  for  more? 

Very  truly  yours, 
THE COMPANY. 

This  letter  begins,  "As  you  are  fully  aware/' 
Of  course  the  reader  of  the  letter  was  not  aware, 
but  this  is  a  tactful  and  effective  way  of  intro- 
ducing the  statement  that  is  to  follow,  only  the 
writer  overdoes  the  matter  by  including  the  word 
72 


STYLE     AND     FLUENCY 

"  fully.  "  The  word  is  unnecessary,  for  "  As  you 
are  aware"  serves  every  purpose;  and  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  "  fully  "  even  spoils  the  intended  effect 
to  some  extent  by  insisting  over  much,  so  mak- 
ing the  reader  suspicious. 

The  frank  statement  of  how  the  circulation  has 
been  obtained  is  a  most  happy  stroke.  Many 
publishers  would  have  concealed  the  facts.  This 
one  realizes  that  the  facts  are  interesting  in  them- 
selves to  the  reader  and  so  are  likely  to  win  a 
hearing  from  him;  but,  also,  confidence  is  inva- 
riably given  by  frankness. 

The  weak  part  of  the  letter  is  the  second  and 
third  paragraphs.  They  insist  a  little  too  much. 
The  reader  is  interested  in  the  method  of  secur- 
ing circulation,  which  will  probably  strike  him 
as  a  clever  idea.  A  very  brief  statement  of  the 
results  of  this  scheme,  selected  from  the  most 
telling  sentences  of  the  third  paragraph,  would 
be  appropriate.  The  subject-matter  of  the  second 
paragraph  might  better  have  been  condensed  into 
the  last  paragraph,  or  omitted  altogether.  The 
last  paragraph  might  easily  be  condensed  in  its 
73 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

wording.  The  tone  of  suggestion  and  recom- 
mendation is  effective,  since  it  assumes  confidence 
and  a  friendly  feeling;  the  assumption  of  such 
a  feeling  goes  far  toward  producing  it. 

Handling  a  Large  Correspondence 

But  some  business  man  will  remark,  "I  have 
to  dictate  over  a  hundred  letters  every  day;  I 
haven't  time  to  consider  every  word  in  every  one." 

Every  correspondent  knows  that  when  a  hun- 
dred letters  a  day  have  to  be  composed,  these 
letters  are  all  very  much  alike  in  subject-matter; 
and  probably  the  wording  is  very  similar  in 
letter  after  letter.  Usually  a  large  correspond- 
ence can  be  divided  into  a  few  classes  of  letters. 
Certain  statements  will  have  to  be  repeated  over 
and  over  and  over.  In  other  letters  the  varia- 
tions will  be  slight.  Such  a  correspondence  may 
be  mastered  in  the  following  way: 

Select  from  your  copy-files  letters  containing 

the  statements  that  have  to  be  repeated  most 

often,  looking  on  them  as  typical  letters  that  may 

be   identical   with   hundreds   of   others.     Study 

74 


STYLE     AND     FLUENCY 

each  letter,  thinking  of  its  application  to  as  large 
a  class  of  cases  as  possible,  changing  and  revis- 
ing the  wording,  reflecting  on  the  probable  reader, 
condensing  or  expanding  as  the  case  may  require, 
until  the  letter  is  as  nearly  perfect  as  you  can 
make  it.  Lay  this  one  aside,  and  take  up  the 
type  letter  for  another  class,  revising  that  in  the 
same  thoughtful,  careful  way.  An  hour  or  two 
may  be  spent  on  each  letter. 

In  dictating,  have  these  carefully  prepared 
form  letters  at  hand  and  shape  your  actual  letter 
from  the  form  you  hold  in  your  hand.  Of  course 
some  variations  will  have  to  be  made.  At  first 
you  will  make  as  few  variations  as  possible, 
gradually  memorizing  the  form  letters.  But  as 
you  dictate,  you  will  think  of  other  methods  of 
expression,  and  these  new  methods  you  will  in- 
troduce into  the  letter  you  have  under  way.  By 
making  a  note  of  the  letter,  you  can  refer  to  your 
copy-file  and  extract  the  phrase  or  sentence  that 
pleased  you,  placing  it  with  your  other  form 
letters. 

If  this  method  of  careful  study  is  pursued  for 
75 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

several  months,  you  will  be  able  to  dictate  a 
hundred  letters  a  day,  and  feel  sure  that  they 
are  all  as  nearly  perfect  as  if  you  had  spent  an 
hour  over  each.  You  will  soon  memorize  the 
forms  and  be  able  to  repeat  them  without  referring 
to  your  copies;  and  as  you  go  on,  new  forms  will 
suggest  themselves,  and  you  will  use  them,  un- 
til your  memory  is  loaded  with  a  vast  variety  of 
special  forms,  any  of  which  you  can  introduce 
on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  and  you  will  possess 
the  advantage  of  having  given  each  phrase  or 
sentence  you  use  the  most  thorough  and  search- 
ing study.  There  is  no  reason  in  the  nature  of 
things  why  a  business  letter  should  not  be  the 
most  perfect  work  of  art  that  any  literary  pro- 
duction is  capable  of  being. 

Humor  in  Business   Letters 

The  humorous  style  that  is  so  because  it  is 
so  preeminently  good-humored  would  be  a  most 
powerful  aid  to  the  business  letter  writer  if  he 
could  see  how  to  use  it.  The  danger  always  is 
that  the  serious-minded  man  to  whom  one  Writes 
76 


STYLE     AND     FLUENCY 

might  not  suspect  that  one  were  joking,  and  un- 
pleasant complications  might  follow. 

Deliberate  fun  is  largely  barred  from  business 
letters,  though  it  is  being  used  more  and  more 
in  newspaper  advertising.  But  the  American 
business  man  can  fight  against  the  deadly  seri- 
ousness that  seems  to  have  taken  such  posses- 
sion of  him.  Letters  need  not  be  written  in  a 
tone  so  fiercely  earnest.  Of  course  they  should 
not  be  flippant  or  frivolous,  since  such  a  tone 
inevitably  destroys  confidence;  but  they  may  and 
should  be  good-humored,  kindly,  courteous. 
"Replying  to  your  esteemed  favor,  which  seems 
to  have  no  date,"  sounds  like  an  unkind  rebuke; 
for  what  does  the  date  matter  ?  The  mere  dating 
of  a  letter  is  too  trifling  a  circumstance  to  be 
taken  in  so  serious  a  way,  unless  a  lawsuit  or 
a  charge  of  public  dishonesty  is  to  hinge  upon 
the  exact  moment  at  which  the  letter  was  written. 

In  every  correspondence,  too,  many  errors  of 
various  kinds  will  arise.  Those  which  are  tri- 
fling and  amusing  may  always  be  made  the  oc- 
casion of  good-humored  jest,  which  will  usually 
77 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER    WRITING 

be  appreciated,  and  may  prove  a  powerful  means 
of  winning  a  customer.  In  the  case  of  more  seri- 
ous errors,  remember  that  argument,  dispute,  bad 
temper  have  ruined  many  a  letter  writer's  career; 
self-control  and  kindly  courtesy  wrill  do  more  to 
win  your  point  than  the  most  positive  proof  that 
you  are  right. 

And  once  a  business  man  has  begun  to  look 
on  "the  humorous  side  of  things,"  he  will  grad- 
ually see  many  opportunities  for  introducing  the 
humorous  style  into  his  letters.  Be  very  sure  it 
will  be  worth  a  fortune  to  any  man  who  can 
master  it  for  business  purposes. 

Generosity  and  Courtesy.  Another  thing  to  be 
remembered  is  that  all  men  are  reflectors,  and  we 
get  back  very  much  what  we  send  forth:  if  we 
send  forth  humor,  good  temper,  and  courtesy,  we 
shall  get  them  back ;  and,  strange  as  it  may  seem, 
if  we  give  generously,  others  will  give  to  us. 
"  Cast  thy  bread  upon  the  waters ,  for  thou  shalt 
find  it  after  many  days"  has  a  wonderful  sig- 
nificance for  the  business  man  who  can  appreci- 
ate it.  The  man  who  makes  himself  cheap 
78 


STYLE     AND     FLUENCY 

makes  a  mistake,  of  course;  but  the  man  who 
frankly  gives,  assuming  and  believing  that  others 
will  give  to  him,  is  usually  favored  as  he  expects 
and  wishes  to  be. 

Booklet  Writing 

In  advertising-booklet  writing  all  the  re- 
sources of  an  accomplished  literary  style 
may  be  made  available,  according  to  condi- 
tions. 

There  are  in  general  three  kinds  of  booklets. 
The  simplest  is  the  booklet  that  merely  describes 
in  detail  some  article  that  is  for  sale,  mentioning 
all  the  points  in  its  favor:  such  a  booklet  is 
practically  a  catalogue.  Or  a  booklet  may  be 
written  to  educate  the  customer  to  an  apprecia- 
tion of  what  he  would  gain  by  making  use  of 
the  thing  advertised.  Or  again,  a  booklet 
may  be  planned  to  entertain  and  divert,  while 
incidentally  holding  the  attention  of  the  reader 
upon  the  advertised  object  till  by  unconscious 
mental  effort  he  comes  to  think  enough  about 
the  object  to  be  curious  about  it,  and  to  want  to 
79 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

try  it.  This  is  the  most  difficult  type  of  adver- 
tisement writing  to  accomplish  with  success, 
but  it  is  obviously  the  only  one  that  will  be  effec- 
tive in  the  case  of  very  simple  objects  which 
cannot  be  explained  or  argued  about,  but  must 
be  tested  through  the  mere  personal  inclination 
of  the  buyer.  It  requires  a  high  literary  skill 
to  produce  such  an  inclination  of  the  mind.  It 
is  very  much  like  producing  an  inclination  in 
the  mind  of  the  reader  of  a  work  of  literature 
toward  some  moral  or  intellectual  idea,  or  pro- 
ducing a  liking  for  a  character  in  a  story.  This 
suggests  to  the  advertisement  writer  that  he  should 
study  story-writing  and  creative  composition. 

Usually  a  booklet  is  sent  to  some  one  who  re- 
plies to  a  short  advertisement,  and  that  fact  im- 
plies that  some  interest  has  been  aroused.  The 
simplest  form  of  booklet  to  meet  such  a  demand 
is  written  in  a  clear,  terse  style.  The  booklet 
writer  has  the  advantage  over  the  writer  of 
literary  work  in  that  he  may  be  as  brief  as  he 
wishes,  and  the  more  wit,  information,  and  argu- 
ment he  can  crowd  into  a  few  pages  the  better. 
80 


STYLE     AND     FLUENCY 

Sincerity,  honesty,  is  the  chief  source  of  success. 
The  old  doctrine  of  P.  T.  Barnum  that  the  public 
likes  to  be  humbugged  has  been  entirely  exploded. 

As  a  rule,  rigid  truth,  if  there  is  no  hesitation 
or  timidity  in  the  writer,  will  carry  conviction  much 
more  certainly  than  exaggeration  or  falsehood, 
even  if  the  writer  thinks  he  is  concealing  his 
steps  perfectly.  Somehow  the  false  note  always 
betrays  itself. 

The  truth  is,  an  advertisement  or  advertising 
•  booklet  should  be  valuable  and  useful  to  the 
reader,  just  as  a  literary  work  should  be.  If  it 
is  useful,  it  will  be  kept  and  read;  if  it  is  not 
useful,  it  will  be  thrown  into  the  wastebasket. 
No  booklet  should  ever  be  sent  out  that  is  likely 
to  be  thrown  into  the  wastebasket.  If  the  sub- 
ject itself  cannot  be  made  sufficiently  interesting, 
useful  information,  extracts  from  literary  works, 
or  the  like,  should  be  introduced  merely  that  the 
booklet  may  be  kept.  This  is  exactly  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  magazine  or  newspaper,  from  the  ad- 
vertiser's point  of  view:  the  valuable  informa- 
tion or  literary  works  in  the  periodical  carry  the 
81 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

advertising  into  the  sight  of  the  reader  and  keep 
it  there  till  it  has  had  a  chance  to  sink  into  his 
mind,  whether  consciously  or  unconsciously. 
Booklet  writers  ought  to  apply  the  same  princi- 
ple and  become  distributors  of  the  best  there  is 
in  literature,  art,  and  science.  In  this  way  they 
will  not  only  diffuse  knowledge  and  help  to  edu- 
cate the  world,  but  save  millions  of  dollars  worth 
of  advertising  literature  that  is  now  destroyed  as 
soon  as  it  is  received. 


82 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  BUSINESS  VALUE  OF  CORRECT 
ENGLISH 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE  BUSINESS   VALUE  OF  CORRECT 
ENGLISH 

A     FEW   years   ago    business   men    were    in 
•*  **  the  habit  of  saying, 

*'  What  do  I  care  for  the  grammar  of  a  letter 
so  long  as  it  gets  the  business  ?  I've  been  writing 
letters  for  twenty  years,  and  I've  made  a  fortune. 
I  dare  say  you  could  pick  my  letters  full  of  holes, 
but  I  have  a  sneaking  idea  they  brought  me 
more  business  than  all  the  college  professors'  let- 
ters that  ever  were  written." 

Five  years  has  seen  a  great  change  in  the 
business  world.  Business  men  who  made  re- 
marks like  those  just  quoted  have  found  out 
they  are  wrong.  They  have  discovered  that 
errors  of  grammar  have  probably  cost  them 
thousands  of  dollars,  and  they  are  as  eager 
after  good  English  as  they  were  indifferent 
a  while  ago. 

85 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

Let  us  see  just  why  grammar  is  worth  dollars 
to  any  business  man. 

Grammar  is  the  science  of  the  logical  rela- 
tionship of  words  in  a  sentence.  If  a  man  has 
a  clear,  logical  mind,  and  writes  with  perfect 
clearness  and  accuracy,  he  observes  all  the  rules 
of  grammar  whether  he  knows  one  of  them  by 
name  or  not.  There  was  an  idea  once  that  gram- 
mar was  a  matter  of  authority  and  it  was  all  a 
question  of  what  the  professors  said  or  didn't 
say  about  something  everybody  understood  per- 
fectly well  anyway.  But  this  is  not  correct. 
There  are  a  few  things  which  nearly  every  one 
does  which  a  man  wishes  to  avoid  so  that  he  may 
not  disgrace  himself  with  the  better  educated 
classes  in  the  community.  But  most  errors  of 
grammar  are  instances  of  illogical  and  confused 
statement.  Perhaps  the  common  reader  can 
guess  what  you  mean,  but  he  hesitates  a  moment 
and  is  confused.  The  impression  you  would 
make  on  his  mind  is  blurred.  The  error  you 
have  made,  slight  as  it  is,  is  like  a  hazy  little 
cloud  between  you  and  your  customer.  Let 


VALUE  OF  CORRECT  ENGLISH 

this  be  multiplied  in  a  thousand  letters,  in  ten 
thousand,  and  a  thousand  or  ten  thousand  little 
clouds  have  become  a  fog  thick  and  blinding, 
which  has  shut  out  from  you  dollars  the  num- 
ber of  which  you  will  never  know. 

We  admit  that  there  are  more  important  things 
in  business  letter  writing  than  grammar.  You 
must  have  the  goods  to  sell  in  the  first  place  — 
better  goods  in  your  line  than  anybody  else.  To 
be  successful  you  must  have  in  your  narrow 
corner  of  the  world  a  trust,  a  monopoly — the 
cheapest  house,  or  the  best  house,  or  the  cheap- 
est, quality  considered,  or  the  like. 

And  then  you  must  talk  to  your  customer  in 
a  letter  just  as  you  would  in  a  face-to-face  con- 
versation; and  if  you  are  not  a  good  salesman, 
and  never  were,  and  never  can  be,  your  letter 
will  not  get  any  business'  even  if  your  grammar 
is  correct  in  every  particular.  The  better  sales- 
man you  are,  the  more  money  you  sacrifice  by 
poor  use  of  words,  by  errors  of  grammar. 

If  you  are  making  a  fortune  by  using  poor 
letters,  you  can  make  a  greater  one  by  using 
87 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

correct  ones,  and  the  more  money  you  are  mak- 
ing the  more  you  lose  by  neglecting  grammar. 

The  kind  of  grammar  taught  in  schools  is  a 
mighty  poor  kind.  It  is  a  mass  of  rules,  and 
machinery,  and  formalities,  and  stiffness,  that 
has  little  of  the  practical  value  we  have  just  been 
indicating.  But  there  is  a  kind  of  simple  gram- 
mar for  a  practical  business  man  which  is  open 
to  none  of  these  objections.  Let  us  briefly 
outline  it,  for  it  can  all  be  stated  in  a  few 
words. 

Rules  of  grammar  do  not  help  a  man  to  write 
correctly.  They  merely  enable  him  to  correct 
what  he  has  written  after  it  is  on  paper.  The 
thing  that  helps  him  to  write  correctly  in  the 
first  place  is  the  habit  of  being  careful  in  his 
expression.  The  first  great  fault  to  overcome 
is  merely  looseness  and  carelessness, —  a  slip- 
shod habit  characteristic  of  nearly  all  Americans. 

We  have  defined  grammar  as  "the  logical 
relationship  of  words  in  a  sentence."  A  school 
man  warned  us  before  we  published  this  definition 
that  we  should  regret  nothing  so  much  as  this  to 


VALUE  OF  CORRECT  ENGLISH 

the  day  we  died;  but  we  have  never  been  so  glad 
of  anything. 

There  are  four  different  relationships  which 
a  word  must  have  in  a  sentence,  and  if  it  does  n't 
have  one  of  these  it  has  no  business  there.  These 
relationships  are  the  parts  of  speech.  A  word 
may  name  something,  and  then  it  is  a  noun;  or 
it  may  assert  something  or  ask  a  question  or  ex- 
press a  command,  and  then  it  is  a  verb;  or  it 
may  be  placed  beside  another  word  to  describe, 
and  then  it  is  an  adjective  or  adverb;  or  it  may 
be  a  connective,  and  then  it  is  a  preposition  or 
conjunction.  The  exclamation  is  a  little  word 
which  is  a  complete  sentence  in  itself.  With  the 
subdivisions,  we  have  seven  different  "parts  of 
speech."  Master  these  and  you  have  the  basis 
of  grammar. 

There  are  a  half-dozen  other  things  to  know 
about  the  subject,  and  you  have  it  complete  in 
a  nutshell.  It  becomes  a  little  instrument  like 
a  foot  rule  which  you  can  apply  to  every  sen- 
tence you  write  and  test  it.  Only  a  simple  gram- 
mar like  this  can  be  used  every  day.  The  great 
89 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

complicated  machine  that  is  given  us  in  school  is 
cumbrous  for  the  practical  purpose  of  testing 
sentences  all  day  long  in  business  letters.  It  will 
do  for  laboratory  tests,  but  that  is  another  thing. 
So  you  see  that  this  little  machine  we  speak  of 
is  a  necessary  tool  in  every  business  office,  and 
like  the  daily  balance  in  bookkeeping,  it  keeps 
you  from  losing  money  that  might  otherwise  be 
yours  if  you  had  a  proper  system. 


CHAPTER  V 
MODEL  LETTERS 


CHAPTER  V 

MODEL   LETTERS 

TF  a  letter  has  to  be  written  for  some  special 
occasion  it  is  not  desirable  to  copy  any  set 
model.  Every  case  has  its  own  conditions  and 
details,  and  while  some  general  form  may  be 
followed,  a  frank,  natural,  colloquial  statement 
should  be  made,  with  the  certainty  that  it  will 
prove  to  be  a  good  letter. 

Applying  for  a  Position 

A  prominent  Chicago  business  man  says 
that  he  advises  those  who  answer  "blind"  want 
advertisements  offering  positions  to  say  simply, 
"Please  grant  interview."  It  is  impossible  to 
state  your  case  completely  in  a  letter,  especially 
when  you  are  ignorant  of  the  character  of  the 
man  to  whom  you  write.  This  brief  request  is 
likely  to  pique  his  curiosity  and  he  will  make  an 
appointment,  if  anything  will  induce  him  to  do  so. 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

A  good  letter  applying  for  a  position  is  one 
which  shows  that  the  writer  knows  something 
about  the  requirements  of  the  place,  and  in 
which  he  speaks  entirely  of  those  qualifications 
in  which  the  person  offering  the  position  will 
be  interested.  It  is  a  mistake  to  state  too  many 
qualifications,  for  those  that  do  not  affect  the  posi- 
tion in  question  will  only  weaken  the  application. 
A  sincere,  earnest,  common-sense  letter  is  the 
best  kind  to  write.  Here  is  one  written  by  a 
young  man  just  out  of  business  college,  who 
wants  a  position  in  the  accounting  department  of 
a  business  house: 

15  BRYDEN  ST.,  CHICAGO,  April  9,  19 — . 
MESSRS.  HUGH  CAMERON  &  Co., 

CHICAGO. 
GENTLEMEN  : 

I  wish  to  apply  for  a  position  in  your  account- 
ing department. 

I  have  just  graduated  from  the  Jones  Busi- 
ness College,  and  have  kept  books  in  my  father's 
grocery  store  for  over  a  year.     For  two  months 
94 


MODEL      LETTERS 


I  had  charge  of  a  card  system  for  Bates  &  Co. 
I  am  only  seventeen  years  old,  and  I  know 
my  experience  is  limited;  but  I  am  exceedingly 
anxious  to  show  what  hard  work  and  brains 
will  do.  If  you  give  me  a  chance  you  will  find 
me  as  faithful  and  hardworking  as  if  I  were  a 
member  of  the  firm,  yet  always  willing  to  be 
taught  and  do  any  work  assigned  me.  I  care 
much  more  about  a  chance  to  learn  and  show 
what  I  can  do,  and  obtain  advancement  in  pro- 
portion to  my  success,  than  to  get  a  large  salary 
at  once  or  find  an  easy  place. 

I  am  willing  to  do  any  kind  of  work  you  wish 
in  the  office,  and  if  you  will  give  me  a  chance  I 
will  accept  whatever  salary  you  think  fair. 
Respectfully  yours, 

Don't  tell  all  about  your  own  notions  of  what 
you  are  worth,  nor  brag,  nor  give  any  hint 
you  are  looking  for  an  easy  job.  Most  em- 
ployers are  more  interested  in  their  own  affairs 
than  yours,  so  talk  about  their  business  and 
keep  your  own  personal  affairs  to  yourself. 
95 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

Simple  Letters  about  Small  Matters 
When  a  simple  matter  is  to  be  attended  to 
by  mail,  do  it  in  the  simplest  and  most  straight- 
forward way  possible.  Never  use  any  stiff  or 
formal  phraseology.  The  following  is  a  good 
form  to  use  in  sending  money.  Always  be  sure 
to  state  just  how  much  you  send,  in  what  form 
it  is,  whether  bills,  coin,  stamps,  money  order, 
or  check,  and  precisely  what  you  want  done 
with  it. 

Also  be  very  careful  to  put  in  your  own  full 
address,  and  arrange  the  letter  in  a  business- 
like way. 

ASPEN,  ARK.,  May  19,  19 — . 
MESSRS.  HENRY  DYER  &  Co., 

115  WABASH  AVE.,  CHICAGO. 
GENTLEMEN: 

I  inclose  a  money  order  in  your  favor 
for  $1.54,  for  which  I  wish  you  to  send  me  a  copy 
of  "  Practical  Journalism,"  price  of  which  I  be- 
lieve is  $1.45,  and  postage  9c.  Prompt  atten- 
tion to  this  order  will  greatly  oblige 
Yours  truly, 


MODEL      LETTERS 


In  giving  an  order,  be  sure  that  every  neces- 
sary detail  is  stated  so  that  the  order  can  be 
filled  intelligently. 

55  TACOMA  BLDG.,  Evanston, 

July  1,  19—. 
MESSRS.  SMITH  &  BROWN, 

CHICAGO. 
GENTLEMEN  : 

Please  send  C.  O.  D.  by  Johnson's  Subur- 
ban Express  the  following  articles: 
6  cakes  American  Family  soap; 
1  cake  Sapolio; 
10  Ibs.  granulated  sugar; 
10-lb.  piece  Star  bacon; 

1  bu.  potatoes. 
I  hope  you  can  ship  these  goods  the  day  this 

letter  reaches  you. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Observe  that  the  items  are  separated  by  semi- 
colons. The  period  after  the  last  item  indi- 
cates that  the  end  of  the  list  has  been  reached. 
It  is  usual  to  indent  a  list  of  items  of  this  kind  an 
inch  or  so. 

97 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

It  was  formerly  the  practice  to  capitalize  all 
important  words  as  well  as  special  names  in  lists 
of  this  kind  and  in  bills.  It  is  not  now  good 
usage  to  capitalize  any  but  specific  names  of 
special  brands  or  the  like,  leaving  all  common 
nouns  with  small  letters. 

A  Hurry-up  Letter 

When  somebody  is  to  be  made  to  do 
something  as  the  result  of  a  letter,  especially 
something  he  does  not  naturally  want  to  do,  a 
certain  literary  quality  must  be  put  into  the  letter 
that  will  attract  attention  and  make  the  person 
who  receives  the  letter  feel  like  doing  what  is 
wanted.  If  one  is  giving  an  order  for  goods, 
the  natural  eagerness  of  the  person  who  receives 
the  order  to  get  it  is  usually  sufficient  to  bring 
prompt  action,  and  clearness  and  accuracy  are 
the  prime  essentials. 

But  if  a  firm  is  slow  in  filling  an  order  it  is 
often  desirable  to  write  a  letter  that  will  hasten 
action  as  much  as  possible.  Here  is  a  good 
strong  hurry-up  letter: 

98 


MODEL      LETTERS 


55  TACOMA  BLDG.,  Evanston, 

July  10,  19—. 
MESSRS.  SMITH  &  BROWN, 

CHICAGO. 
GENTLEMEN  : 

Ten  days  ago  I  sent  you  an  order  for 
groceries,  and  I  haven't  yet  received  them.  The 
order  was  as  follows :  [repeat  order] 

Now  unless  you  can  deliver  these  goods  im- 
mediately, I  don't  want  them.  I  have  always 
dealt  with  your  house,  and  have  received  uni- 
formly prompt  and  courteous  attention.  Per- 
haps for  some  reason  my  former  order  did  not 
reach  you;  but  in  any  case,  since  I  have  waited 
as  long  as  I  possibly  can,  I  am  sure  you  will  make 
every  effort  now  to  see  that  this  order  is  filled 
IMMEDIATELY. 

By  so  doing  you  will  confer  a  favor  upon 

Yours  truly, 

Collection  Letters 

Collecting  money  by  letter  is  one  of  the  most 
difficult  things  in  the  world,  and  it  requires  all 
the  art  and  skill  possible. 
99 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

One  kind  of  letter  will  collect  money  from 
one  sort  of  person,  and  another  kind  will  do 
much  better  in  getting  money  from  another 
kind. 

There  are  in  general  t  three  classes  of  delin- 
quent debtors.  The  first  are  those  who  have 
overlooked  or  neglected  their  obligations  and 
need  only  to  be  reminded  in  the  gentlest  way. 
Such  a  letter  as  the  following  will  usually  bring 
money  from  them: 

DEAR  SIR: 

I  inclose  a  statement  of  the  amount 
due  on  account  of  [state  the  account].  Could  you 
not  favor  me  with  a  check  immediately,  as  I  have 
heavy  obligations  to  meet  and  need  the  money? 
Thanking  you  in  advance  for  your  prompt 
attention  to  this  matter, 

Truly  yours, 

The  second  class  includes  those  who  have 
little  money  and  find  it  difficult  to  make  it  go  all 
the  way  around.  In  such  a  case  evidently  some 
one  must  wait,  and  usually  you  hope  it  will  not 

100 


MODEL      L  E  TT  K  U  & • ' ; '», -'    i • ' 

be  you.  Usually  browbeating  is  folly.  Sym- 
pathy is  the  true  tack.  Try  to  find  out  when 
money  will  be  in  hand,  and  get  a  definite  promise 
that  the  indebtedness  will  be  paid  at  that  precise 
time.  Then  when  the  day  arrives  be  on  hand 
with  your  notification,  so  as  to  be  sure  you  are 
not  forgotten  in  favor  of  some  one  more  alert 
than  yourself.  The  following  is  a  type  of  the 
sympathetic  letter: 

DEAR  SIR: 

I  feel  that  I  have  been  exceedingly 
patient  in  regard  to  your  indebtedness  to  me  of 
$14.65,  which  has  now  been  owing  for  two  months. 
I  realize  that  you  probably  have  many  other 
pressing  obligations,  and  it  is  a  little  difficult  for 
you  to  care  for  all.  Now,  however,  I  find  it 
absolutely  necessary  to  make  this  collection.  I  do 
not  care  to  use  any  unpleasant  methods  in  doing 
it,  for  I  have  perfect  confidence  in  your  honesty 
of  intention.  You  know  your  resources,  and 
you  know  the  earliest  possible  date  at  which  you 
can  pay  this  account.  Tell  me  just  exactly  when 
101 


'S  U  tf  C'£'S :S  :  3 ,  N  / 1  £T  T  E  R     WRITING 

you  can  arrange  payment,  and  if  you  cannot  send 
me  check  immediately,  I  will  try  to  wait  a  few 
days  longer.  But  I  must  insist  on  something 
definite  by  return  mail.  Kindly  oblige  me  by 
a  prompt  and  frank  reply. 

Very  truly  yours, 

The  third  class  is  that  of  the  deadbeats,  those 
who  can  pay  but  won't,  and  have  to  be  clubbed 
into  paying.  For  this  class  a  brutal,  threatening 
letter  is  usually  necessary,  but  should  be 
used  only  when  absolutely  required. 

DEAR  SIR  : 

Your  account  amounting  to  $12.97  has 
been  due  for  four  months  now.  I  have  sent  you 
statements  repeatedly,  and  written  you  several 
letters,  but  I  have  not  been  favored  with  a  reply 
from  you  in  any  form. 

I  am  loath  to  class  you  as  a  deadbeat.     I 

should  hate  to  believe  you  were  a  swindler.     I 

feel,  however,  that  an  honest  man  would  at  least 

make  a  courteous  reply  to  courteous  letters.     I 

102 


MODEL     LETTERS 


am  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to    think  in   this 
case. 

Before  I  sue  you  right  in  your  home  town, 
where  every  one  will  know  that  you  have  tried 
to  get  goods  you  didn't  intend  to  pay  for,  and 
before  I  pile  up  court  costs  and  fees  upon  you 
so  as  to  double  the  debt  already  due,  I  write  this 
letter  to  give  you  one  more  opportunity  to  pay 
up  and  settle  the  whole  matter. 

Unless  I  hear  from  you  by  next  Saturday  I 
shall  order  suit  started.  I  sincerely  hope  you 
will  not  compel  me  to  take  that  step. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Soliciting  Letters 

In  writing  a  letter  to  sell  anything,  enthusiasm 
is  the  great  thing.  There  should  be  no  stiffness 
or  formality  of  any  kind ;  the  letter  should  Be  long 
enough  to  make  an  impression,  and  the  style 
should  be  that  of  earnest  conversation.  In  short> 
the  ideal  soliciting  letter  should  be  one  that  comes 
as  near  the  enthusiastic  talk  of  a  good  salesman 
as  possible,  except  that  it  must  be  condensed  and 
103 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

a  little  more  dignified  than  conversation  needs 
to  be. 

The  following  is  an  example  of  the  style  and 
tone  that  bring  business : 

DEAR  SIR: 

This  is  to  introduce  you  to  the  most  agree- 
able acquaintance  a  man  in  your  line  can  make — 
a  chance  to  get  more  business;  —  a  chance  to  put 
your  proposition  before  the  eyes  and  into  the 
ears  of  60,000  of  the  best-known  buyers  of  busi- 
ness, office,  and  factory  goods  in  America,  a  clien- 
tele of  the  actual  managers  and  directing  heads 
of  giant  business  establishments,  the  very  men 
who  decide  the  purchase  of  equipments  and  arti- 
cles like  yours. 

You  can  meet  and  talk  to  these  60,000  serious, 
earnest,  investigating,  possible  customers  through 

the  December  issue  of .     And  at  a  time  so 

opportune  to  salesmen,  so  powerful,  that  they  will 
literally  have  to  read  what  you  say. 

Have  to,  because  it  is  a  part  of  the  business 
duty,  the    very    office  routine  of    such   shrewd 
104 


MODEL      LETTERS 


business  men  to  investigate  every  device  that 
will  in  any  way  improve  their  office,  their  fac- 
tories, their  stores,  themselves. 

If  you  make  any  practical  device  of  any 
earthly  description  for  the  office,  store,  or  fac- 
tory, here  is  your  chance  to  reach  the  richest 
class  of  business  buyers  in  the  world, —  and  right 
during  the  month  of  all  months,  mind  you,  the 
cream  of  the  year,  the  season  of  business  changes, 
the  time  before  New  Year's,  when  new  devices 
are  considered  and  old  ones  thrown  out,  Decem- 
ber, the  harvest  time  of  the  mail-order  season. 

And  if  you  make  articles  for  the  personal  use 
and  comfort  of  such  men,  remember  such  men 
have  pocket-books,  such  men  have  means,  such 
men  have  appetites,  such  men  wear  the  best  of 
clothes,  such  men  —  above  any  other  class  —  are 
in  a  position  to  gratify  every  need,  secure  every 
luxury,  buy  every  comfort  that  taste  and  demand 
may  dictate. 

They  are  the  best  spenders  because  they  are 
the  biggest  earners. 

You  can't  afford  to  overlook  an  opportunity 
105 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER    WRITING 

to  reach  60,000  such  men  in  the  best  mail-order 
month  of  the  year,  the  commercial  emperors  of 
America,  the  rulers  of  giant  industries  and  fat 
bank  accounts,  the  custodians  of  overflowing  cash- 
drawers,  with  expensive  tastes, —  every  mother's 
son  of  them  a  possible  customer  of  yours. 

i  You  can't  afford,  we  say,  to  miss  the  Decem- 
ber -  — .  Get  your  copy  in  for  this  giant 
prosperous  December  issue,  the  best  mail-order 
puller  of  the  year.  Mail  it  now,  so  as  to  reach 

us    in  good   season   before   the   24th    ( 's 

closing  date),  or  if  copy  is  not  ready,  mail  us 
circulars  and  let  our  Advertisers'  Service  Bureau 
prepare  your  advertising.  In  any  case,  notify  tus 
how  much  space  to  reserve. 

Very  truly  yours, 


106 


CHAPTER  VI 

FOLLOW-UP  SYSTEMS 


CHAPTER   VI 


FOLLOW-UP  SYSTEMS 

A  "FOLLOW-UP  SYSTEM"  is  a  series  of 
•**•  letters  to  be  sent  to  a  list  of  names  of  persons 
known  to  be  interested  in  buying  some  article, 
or  the  like.  A  small  advertisement  is  inserted 
in  newspapers  all  over  the  country,  and  peo- 
ple write  for  information.  The  first  letter 
sent  them  fully  explains  the  thing  offered,  and 
usually  is  accompanied  by  a  booklet  giving  still 
fuller  information  for  those  who  seriously 
think  of  investing. 

Many  make  the  mistake  of  getting  a  good 
booklet  and  then  writing  a  letter  calling  atten- 
tion to  the  booklet.  This  is  a  grave  error.  The 
letter  itself  should  make  the  first  impression, 
for  the  booklet  will  not  be  likely  to  be  read  ex- 
cept by  those  who  have  first  been  impressed  by 
109 


SUCCESS      IN     LETTER     WRITING 

the   letter.     The    booklet    serves    to  deepen  the 
impression  and  get  the  order. 

A  letter  of  this  kind  is  almost  necessarily 
rather  long.  Yet  it  must  be  condensed  and 
intense,  and  there  is  a  regular  order  in  making 
the  psychological  appeal  to  human  nature, 
fuller  description  of  which  will  be  found  in  the 
next  chapter. 

Don't  Send   Too  Much 

It  is  a  mistake  to  send  too  much  printed 
matter  with  letters  of  this  kind  —  the  less  the 
better,  if  the  impression  can  be  produced.  It  is 
of  great  value  to  know  enough  to  stop  when 
the  impression  is  complete,  for  every  word 
beyond  that  is  likely  to  spoil  the  getting  of  an 
order. 

If  the  inquirer  does  n't  respond  to  the  first 
letter,  it  is  necessary  to  send  a  second.  Many 
business  men  begin  with  a  regret  that  the  first 
letter  was  not  heeded.  This  is  unquestion- 
ably an  error,  for  the  person  who  receives 
such  a  letter  is  likely  to  be  annoyed  by  the 
110 


FOLLOW-UP     SYSTEMS 

persistency.  It  is  better  to  ignore  what  has  gone 
before  and  try  all  over  again  to  produce  the  im- 
pression requisite  to  making  a  sale.  Sometimes 
fresh  printed  matter  may  be  inclosed,  some- 
times the  same  booklet  may  be  sent  again.  Each 
succeeding  letter  should  be  more  intense,  and 
usually  briefer,  though  the  printed  matter  may 
be  more  ample.  The  reason  for  a  briefer  and 
more  intense  letter  is  that  the  inquirer's  first 
curiosity  has  probably  been  satisfied  and  he  will 
be  impatient  of  a  very  long  second  letter.  Im- 
portant points  not  made  in  the  first  should  be 
made  in  the  second.  If  the  person  was  not  in 
an  especially  expectant  frame  of  mind  when  he 
received  the  first  letter,  and  indeed  was  not  ex- 
pecting that  letter,  the  shorter  letter  should  come 
first,  the  longer  second.  About  so  much  atten- 
tion will  be  bestowed  upon  a  given  subject,  and 
if  that  attention  is  largely  exhausted  in  the  first 
instance,  there  will  be  less  left  for  the  second; 
but  if  there  was  not  time  to  exhaust  in  the  first 
instance,  more  attention  will  remain  for  the 
second. 

Ill 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

Make   Every  Letter  Pay 

Each  letter  should  bring  its  own  results, 
and  if  the  first  letter  does  not  pay,  it  is  certain 
that  a  second  letter  of  the  same  kind  will  not 
pay.  Some  think  that  three  or  four  letters  must 
be  written  before  results  can  be  expected.  This 
is  wrong.  If  one  good  letter  does  n't  bring  busi- 
ness, nothing  is  likely  to  come  from  the  second, 
third,  or  fourth.  But  if  one  letter  pays  well, 
it  will  often  be  good  business  to  try  the  same  list 
over  again  with  a  different  letter  to  get  still  more 
business.  This  can  be  kept  up  often  for  years. 
But  when  any  one  letter  fails  to  pay,  either  that 

1 

letter  is  wrong,  or  the  list  has  become  exhausted. 
It  requires  a  skilled  letter  writer  with  experi- 
ence to  tell  which  of  these  is  the  case.  But  even 
an  experienced  letter  writer  will  often  devise  a 
letter  that  contains  some  error  which  spoils  the 
business. 

There  is  a  custom  among  business  men  of 
shaping  three  letters  which  are  called  a  "follow- 
up  system."     The  first  of  these  is  usually  a  good 
letter,   and   the  others    are    merely    "follow-up 
112 


FOLLOW-UP     SYSTEMS 

letters. "  They  lack  the  strong,  intense  quality 
necessary  for  success,  and  in  many  cases  do 
not  at  all  pay  the  cost  of  sending  them  out. 
The  best  way  is  to  write  one  letter  that  will 
get  business,  and  keep  a  close  record  of  results  so 
as  to  be  sure  it  does  get  business.  Then  construct 
another  letter  that  will  be  even  stronger  and  bet- 
ter than  the  first,  and  be  sure  that  pays  before 
sending  it  out  widely.  Then  a  third  letter  may 
be  prepared  in  the  same  spirit  and  tested.  If 
it  brings  results,  it  may  be  accepted  and  used, 
but  if  it  does  not  it  should  be  rejected.  Each 
new  letter  should  have  either  a  new  offer  or  a 
new  argument  or  a  new  piece  of  dramatic  proof. 
A  mere  reiteration  of  old  arguments  and  an  old 
offer  is  not  as  likely  to  be  effective  as  something 

new. 

Educating  Dealers 

There  are  cases  when  a  different  system  is 
advisable.  For  example,  suppose  dealers  are 
to  be  educated  preparatory  to  sending  a  sales- 
man to  them:  a  dozen  letters  may  then  follow 
at  intervals  of  a  week  or  ten  days,  and  each 
113 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER    WRITING 

should  contain  a  lesson  in  itself.  Such  a  series 
of  letters  forms  a  correspondence  educational 
course  in  the  commodity  or  idea  offered.  Giv- 
ing the  points  of  a  business  offer  in  instalments, 
if  there  are  many  of  them  or  if  they  are  com- 
plicated, is  more  likely  to  be  successful  than 
giving  the  whole  in  one  large  booklet  or  cata- 
logue, for  example,  since  the  receiver  will  give 
only  so  much  attention  at  one  time,  and  if  that 
does  not  suffice  for  the  mastery  of  the  subject, 
another  letter  should  be  sent,  summarizing  the 
first  and  giving  additional  points.  This  can  be 
carried  on  till  the  whole  subject  is  presented, 
and  then  a  strike  can  be  made  for  an  order. 


114 


CHAPTER  VII 

DEALING  WITH  HUMAN  NATURE 
BY  MAIL 


CHAPTER  VII 


DEALING  WITH   HUMAN    NATURE  BY  MAIL 

TN  olden  times  every  village  had  its  shoe- 
•*•  maker,  its  miller,  its  furniture-maker,  etc., 
and  the  genius  who  had  some  specialty  that  could 
appeal  to  only  one  or  two  in  his  town  had  ab- 
solutely no  chance  to  make  a  business  of  it. 

Then  came  the  railroads,  and  with  them  the 
"drummers  "  or  travelling  salesmen.  The  miller 
became  miller  to  the  entire  surrounding  country, 
the  furniture-maker  sold  his  products  in  many 
cities,  and  a  shoemaker,  like  a  certain  well-known 
governor  of  Massachusetts,  became  shoemaker 
to  almost  the  entire  country. 

But  there  is  a  limit  to  the  places  to  which  a 
drummer  can  afford  to  go.  All  the  small  towns 
and  country  places  aggregate  as  great  a  number 
of  buyers  as  the  cities,  and  the  only  cheap  and 
practical  way  to  reach  them  is  by  mail. 
117 


SUCCESS     IN      LETTER     WRITING 

How  important,  then,  is  the  art  of  dealing 
with  human  nature  by  mail! 


New   Mail-Order   Methods 

The  art  or  science  of  mail-order  salesman- 
ship is  so  very  different  from  that  of  personal 
salesmanship  that  entirely  new  methods  are  be- 
ing developed,  and  as  we  all  need  sooner  or 
later  to  know  how  we  may  use  written  words  in 
letters  to  make  people  do  things,  all  will  be  in- 
terested in  the  leading  principles  of  this  science. 

In  the  first  place,  you  are  at  a  disadvantage 
in  dealing  with  people  by  mail  as  compared  with 
making  personal  calls  in  that  you  cannot  see  the 
effect  of  what  is  said.  You  work  in  the  dark. 
Either  the  letter  does  it  or  does  n't  do  it.  If 
there  is  any  hitch,  you  do  not  know  it.  A  man 
may  decline  your  offer,  if  he  answers  your  letter 
at  all,  but  he  will  not  tell  you  why.  If  you  are 
on  the  spot  you  may  find  out  the  reason  why, 
and  remedy  the  difficulty,  but  this  is  not  the  case 
by  mail,  as  a  general  thing. 

Again,  the  impression  of  a  letter  is  far  less 
118 


HUMAN     NATURE     BY     MAIL 

intense  than  the  impression  of  a  talk.  You  can 
talk  to  a  man  or  a  woman  half  an  hour  or  more. 
No  one  is  likely  to  spend  more  than  five  or  ten 
minutes  reading  a  letter.  You  must,  therefore, 
do  your  business  in  five  minutes,  if  at  all.  If 
you  make  no  impression  in  five  minutes,  you 
probably  will  never  make  any. 

Mail  Solicitation  not  Cheap 

It  is  a  popular  notion  that  dealing  with  human 
nature  by  mail  is  a  wonderfully  cheap  way  of 
doing  business,  if  it  can  be  done  at  all.  A 
postage  stamp  and  stationery  cost  but  a  nickel, 
whereas  a  personal  visit  might  cost  from  five  to 
twenty-five  dollars.  If  business  can  be  done  by 
mail  it  seems  as  if  the  cost  of  doing  it  would  be 
almost  eliminated.  But  this  is  an  entirely  false 
notion. 

As  the  impression  of  each  letter  is  correspond- 
ingly less  intense  than  that  of  a  personal  visit, 
so  the  proportion  of  returns  is  correspondingly 
smaller.  A  book  canvasser  may  get  three  orders 
out  of  every  five  visits,  whereas  only  one  letter 
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SUCCESS    IN     LETTER     WRITING 

out  of  twenty  or  a  hundred  will  bring  an  order.  I 
If  each  letter  costs  five  cents,  and  it  takes  a  hun- 
dred letters  to  get  an  order,  the  cost  of  getting 
an  order  is  five  dollars. 

Dealing  with  human  nature  by  mail  is  by  no 
means  an  inexpensive  method,  and  it  has  its 
distinct  drawbacks  and  limitations.  But  there  are 
a  vast  number  of  things  that  can  be  done  by 
mail  that  cannot  be  done  in  any  other  way.  It 
costs  no  more  to  reach  a  man  in  Alaska  than  in 
Chicago  or  New  York.  Letters  will  go  all  over 
the  world,  and  the  cost  of  sending  them  varies 
little.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  all  the  business 
that  is'  closed  to  personal  salesmanship  by  reason 
of  distance  or  cost  of  travel  is  immediately  opened 
up  by  the  art  of  letter  writing.  Besides,  whole 
lines  of  business,  in  which  an  appeal  is  made  to 
scattered  individuals  over  a  wide  territory,  are 
made  possible.  The  country  is  unified.  Every  in- 
dividual may  have  the  advantage  of  every  other 
individual;  and  as  the  distribution  of  books  and 
periodicals  through  the  mail  has  gone  far  toward 
making  culture  universal,  so  doing  business  by 
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HUMAN     NATURE     BY     MAIL 

mail  will  go  far  toward  making  comforts  and 
refinements  of  life  universal.  And  from  the 
other  side,  every  man  going  into  business  must 
realize  that  he  has  the  world  for  a  market. 

One  Letter  Worth  a  Million  Dollars 

Such  are  the  general  conditions.  Now  let 
us  examine  some  of  the  particular  points  of  this 
art.  No  one  who  has  tried  to  sell  goods  by  mail 
will  fail  to  realize  that  there  is  a  vast  difference 
between  an  ordinary  memorandum  letter  and  a 
good  business-winning  letter.  One  good  busi- 
ness winning  letter  may  be  worth  a  million  dol- 
lars, and  one  man  may  write  it.  In  no  other  way 
can  one  man  talk  to  so  vast  a  number  of  people. 

But  if  one  talks  to  a  million  people,  all  dissimi- 
lar, it  is  very  different  from  talking  to  one  per- 
son who  can  be  sized  up  and  handled  in  a  special 
way.  The  letter  writer  must  strike  an  average. 
To  do  this  he  may  have  to  try  again  and  again, 
and  he  must  study  the  effect  of  his  letters  by 
imagination.  The  salesman  on  the  spot  sees  the 
effect  with  his  eyes.  The  letter  writer  must  see 
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SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

the  effect  with  his  inward  eye,  the  eye  of  imagi- 
nation. As  it  takes  a  man  of  imagination  to 
move  people  through  a  poem  or  a  novel,  so  it 
takes  a  man  of  imagination  to  deal  successfully 
with  people  in  doing  business  by  letter. 

How  to  Construct  a  Selling  Letter 

There  is,  however,  a  certain  plan  on  which 
a  letter  may  be  written  so  as  to  sell  goods  effect- 
ively. This  plan  has  four  distinct  steps,  as  fol- 
ows: 

1.  Create  desire.  Unless  the  demand  is  uni- 
versal, as  for  wheat  or  coal  or  common  clothing, 
it  is  not  safe  to  assume  desire,  and  if  the  demand 
and  supply  are  universal,  there  is  no  profit  in  ad- 
vertising, for  the  advertiser  only  creates  a  market 
for  some  one  else.  But  if  one  is  selling  stylish 
clothing,  let  us  say,  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to 
create  a  desire  for  style  by  showing  how  much 
it  is  worth  to  the  ordinary  buyer.  If  a  person 
believes  in  style  already,  he  is  pleased  to  be  con- 
firmed in  his  belief,  and  if  he  has  paid  little  at- 
tention to  it,  the  argument  is  a  sort  of  revelation 
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HUMAN     NATURE     BY     MAIL 

to  him.  We  can  assume  only  an  indifferent 
open-mindedness,  and  there  must  be  an  intense 
desire  to  lead  to  buying.  To  get  a  sale,  the  first 
step  is  therefore  to  intensify  desire. 

2.  Once  the  desire  is  created,  the  seller  by 
letter  should  show  just  how  his  product  meets 
the  requirements  in  the  best  possible  way.     Every 
advertiser  ought  to  feel  that  he  has  the  best  of 
its  kind  in  the  world,  or  the  cheapest,  or  the  most 
accessible.     Success  depends  upon  having  a  mo- 
nopoly in  one  of  these  respects.     Unless  there  is 
such  a   monopoly,   one  man's   advertising  only 
creates  a  market  for  another. 

But  it  is  not  enough  to  say  your  product  is 
the  best.  Every  one  says  that;  nobody  believes 
it.  But  if  the  letter  salesman  shows  just  the 
points  of  his  superiority,  so  that  the  buyer  sees 
and  understands,  he  is  much  more  ready  to  do 
business.  He  feels  he  is  going  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent on  his  own  sound  judgment.  He  must  be 
made  to  feel  that  he  is  exercising  this  judgment. 

3.  The  third  step  is  to  offer  proof.     In  ninety- 
nine  cases  out  of  a  hundred  one  is  writing  to  an 

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SUCCESS      IN     LETTER     WRITING 

utter  stranger,  and  it  is  important  to  offer  some 
evidence  of  one's  respectability  and  honesty. 
But  even  if  one's  reputation  is  widely  established, 
the  buyer  wants  to  know  if  the  thing  in  question 
has  really  been  a  success  with  others,  or  if  the 
salesman  merely  thinks  it  is  going  to  be  a  success. 

Evidence  is  usually  to  be  found  in  the  testi- 
mony of  actual  users,  and  hence  the  "testimonial 
sheet."  But  conventional  printed  testimonials, 
which  may  have  been  "faked,"  or  doctored,  or 
obtained  from  friends,  are  of  small  value  in  com- 
parison with  facsimiles  of  checks,  or  of  big  orders, 
or  detailed  statements  from  persons  who  may 
be  written  to  for  a  verification.  One  or  two 
good  pieces  of  proof  are  far  better  than  a  hun- 
dred ordinary  ones. 

4.  The  final  step  is  as  important  as  any  of 
the  preceding  three,  something  that  will  clinch 
the  order  on  the  spot.  Thousands  upon  thou- 
sands of  dollars  are  wasted  each  year  in  working 
buyers  up  to  the  point  of  buying  and  then  ask- 
ing them  merely  to  write  for  more  information, 
instead  of  asking  them  to  give  some  sort  of  order, 
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HUMAN     NATURE     BY     MAIL 

or  in  some  way  committing  themselves  to  an 
order. 

Moreover,  the  first  step  to  be  taken  should 
be  as  easy  as  it  is  possible  to  make  it.  If  the 
person  must  go  to  the  postoffice  for  a  money 
order,  the  time  required  will  let  him  cool  off  and 
change  his  mind.  If  he  may  merely  reinclose 
the  letter  he  has  received  with  a  dollar  bill,  and 
put  them  together  into  an  addressed  return 
envelope,  the  effort  required  is  reduced  to  a 
minimum,  and  the  maximum  of  orders  may  be 
anticipated.  Also,  while  the  buyer  takes  the 
important  step  he  must  be  made  to  feel  that  he 
can  retrace  it  at  any  time.  Human  nature  seldom 
does  retrace  its  steps,  but  it  always  wants  to  feel 
that  it  can.  The  great  mail-order  firms  now 
make  it  an  almost  universal  practice  to  adver- 
tise very  prominently  that  if  the  buyer  is  not 
satisfied  in  any  way,  or  even  changes  his  mind, 
his  money  will  be  refunded  without  a  question. 
The  percentage  of  refunds  is  very  small  if  the 
advertising  is  at  all  genuine,  and  the  risk  of  send- 
ing money  through  the  mails  unregistered  is  very 
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SUCCESS     IN      LETTER     WRITING 

slight  as  compared  with  the  loss  of  business  that 
would  result  if  it  were  considered  necessary,  as 
it  once  was,  to  require  a  money  order,  registered 
letter,  or  draft. 

Trust  Human   Nature 

On  the  average,  human  nature  is  honest,  and 
if  one  avoids  writing  to  known  tricksters  (the 
average  agent,  for  example,  from  whom  full  pay 
in  advance  should  always  be  required),  there  is 
little  danger  of  loss,  even  though  the  opportu- 
nities for  stealing  and  trickery  seem  enormous. 
And  the  small  loss  that  may  come  is  to  be  charged 
off  as  one  of  the  necessary  and  fixed  expenses, 
just  as  bad  accounts  are  in  all  merchandizing. 

Different  Letters  for  Different  Classes 

Success  in  dealing  with  human  nature  by 
mail  depends  to  a  considerable  extent  on  ap- 
pealing to  classes,  studying  each  class  as  in 
personal  salesmanship  one  would  study  each 
individual,  and  making  the  class  appeal  as 
personal  as  possible.  By  this  method  one  may 
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HUMAN     NATURE     BY     MAIL 

write  a  letter  going  to  ten  thousand,  and  yet  it 
will  read  as  if  written  exclusively  for  each  person 
who  receives  it. 

The  broadest  classification  is  that  of  sex. 
You  must  write  to  a  woman  in  a  very  differ- 
ent way  from  that  you  would  use  in  writing  to 
a  man.  You  may  argue  with  a  man;  you  must 
show  a  woman.  She  wants  a  picture  she  can 
look  at,  a  sample  she  can  feel,  a  descriptive  ex- 
planation more  emotional  than  argumentative. 
The  quality' of  the  stationery,  the  excellence  of 
the  printing  (sometimes  the  poor  quality  is  more 
effective  than  good  would  be),  and  the  whole 
feeling  and  atmosphere  of  the  proposal  are  usually 
more  important  than  the  arguments.  Indeed, 
in  writing  to  a  woman  it  is  well  to  suppress  argu- 
ment, or  simplify  it  down  to  the  point  required 
in  writing  to  a  child.  The  spirit,  the  enthusiasm, 
are  the  most  important  things. 

There  are  also  the  people  who  have  time  to 

read  long  letters,   and   those  who  will   look  at 

nothing  that  is  not  reasonably  short.     Mail-order 

houses  dealing  with  farmers  find   that  they  like 

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SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

long  letters,  even  on  unimportant  topics,  and  all 
letters  to  them  must  have  a  certain  length. 

Women  usually  have  plenty  of  time,  and  if 
interested,  will  read  a  long  letter,  which  a 
busy  business  man  would  throw  in  the  waste 
basket. 

Business  men,  who  receive  large  amounts  of 
mail,  demand  that  a  letter  shall  look  peculiar, 
shall  be  out  of  the  ordinary,  and  not  too  long. 
Yet  the  letter  must  be  long  enough  to  do  the 
business  in  hand.  Nothing  irritates  a  business 
man  so  much  as  a  letter  so  short  that  it  tells  only 
half  the  story.  There  has  been  an  idea  widely 
prevalent  that  all  letters  must  be  as  brief  as  possi- 
ble. Successful  mail-order  business  men  are 
finding  out  that  a  selling  letter  must  have  a 
certain  length  in  order  to  get  business,  even  from 
the  busiest  person  in  the  world.  In  selling  real 
estate  a  letter  of  two  or  three  solid  typewritten 
pages  is  required  to  handle  the  business.  Yet, 
if  a  letter  of  three  lines  will  serve  the  pur- 
pose (as  if  one  were  to  offer  a  keg  of  emery  at 
carload  price),  that  is  the  right  length  for  a 
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HUMAN     NATURE     BY     MAIL 

business   man,  though   a   woman   or   a   farmer 
would  require  a  letter  ten  times  as  long. 

People  Buy  as  They  Feel 

People  buy  or  refuse  to  buy  largely  as  they 
feel,  rather  than  as  judgment  dictates.  There 
must,  therefore,  be  the  greatest  care  to  avoid 
rousing  prejudices  except  in  one's  favor.  A  word 
that  carries  an  objectionable  atmosphere,  a  state- 
ment that  suggests  even  a  personal  criticism  or 
injures  vanity,  may  undo  the  best  argument. 
Tact  in  letter  writing  is  even  more  important 
than  in  personal  salesmanship,  for  if  a  mistake 
is  made  it  is  made  forever  and  cannot  be  cor- 
rected or  overcome. 

It  is  clear  that  something  approaching  the 
highest  and  finest  literary  art  is  required  in  doing 
business  by  mail.  The  writer  of  a  book  which 
rouses  men  to  action,  or  the  orator  who  sways 
and  influences  his  audience,  are  doing  much  the 
same  that  the  letter  writer  undertakes,  namely, 
using  words  so  as  to  make  people  do  things.  The 
chief  difference  is  that  the  business  letter  writer 
129 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

79  only  trying  to  sell,  while  the  writer  or  the  orator 
usually  appeals  to  higher  motives.  The  work 
of  the  novelist  and  the  orator  may  unquestion- 
ably be  of  a  much  higher  order,  but  probably 
the  mere  technical  skill  required  is  less.  The 
novelist  and  the  orator,  swayed  by  genius,  know 
not  why  they  succeed.  The  letter  writer  must 
depend  on  cold-blooded  craftsmanship. 

Literature  and   Letter  Writing 

The  man  of  eloquence  and  literature  writes 
or  speaks  expansively,  stopping  only  when  he 
and  his  audience  are  tired.  With  the  letter 
writer  condensation  is  the  great  secret  of  suc- 
cess. He  can  never  take  the  chance  of  tiring 
his  readers.  In  a  few  hundred  words  he  must 
create  desire,  demonstrate  his  mechanism,  or 
the  merits  of  his  product,  prove  his  case,  and  get 
his  order.  The  secret  of  this  wonderful  conden- 
sation is  selection  and  intensity.  Only  telling 
items  must  be  chosen,  yet  they  must  seem  to  be 
all  there  are  of  importance,  or  the  impression 
must  be  given  that  all  the  rest  are  just  the  same. 
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HUMAN     NATURE     BY     MAIL 

A  letter  which  can  bring  dollars  day  after 
day  to  a  business  house  (or  a  magazine  adver- 
tisement for  that  matter),  especially  when  the 
money  comes  from  people  of  education  and  in- 
telligence, must  be  a  work  of  fine  art.  Days, 
weeks,  months,  may  have  gone  to  the  production 
of  it.  Sentence  by  sentence,  word  by  word,  it 
has  been  discussed  and  studied  from  every  point 
of  view.  Then  it  is  tried  and  the  results  are 
carefully  measured.  In  the  case  of  no  other 
kind  of  writing  is  the  test  more  severe  or  more 
direct,  or  the  opportunity  for  conscious  skill  more 
obvious.  In  doing  business  by  mail  there  is 
opportunity  for  the  highest  talent;  yet  prolonged 
training  is  required.  No  one  supposes  that  the 
art  of  business  letter  writing  is  God-given,  as 
many  suppose  the  case  to  be  with  literature.  Yet 
no  one  will  deny  that  ability  of  a  high  order  is 
indispensable. 

As  the  possibilities  latent  in  merchandizing 

by  mail  develop  more  and  more,  it  will  be  seen 

that  the  opportunities  within  the  reach  of  one 

man  will  be  simply  enormous,  as  one  letter  or  one 

131 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

advertisement  may  reach  millions,  and  the  pro- 
portion of  business  that  will  result  from  the  right 
letter  or  the  right  advertisement  will  be  so  much 
greater,  that  an  enormous  fortune  may  lie  in  the 
difference  between  a  common  letter  and  a  really 
good  one. 


132 


PART  II 

SOCIAL  LETTER  WRITING 


PART  II 


SOCIAL    LETTER   WRITING 


CHAPTER   I 

FORMS  AND  CUSTOMS  IN  SOCIAL 
CORRESPONDENCE 

T  TNRULED  paper  and  jet  black  ink  are  im- 
^-^  peratively  required.  Ruled  paper  is  for  the 
use  only  of  children  who  have  not  learned  to  write 
straight.  Colored  or  pale  ink  is  bad  form. 

Cream  white  paper  is  always  right,  but  pale 
blue  and  gray  are  frequently  used.  No  other 
colors  are  recognized. 

For  social  correspondence  the  paper  should 
be  thick,  and  in  double  sheets,  either  note  or 
billet  size.  The  double  sheet  used  for  social 
correspondence  is  to  be  folded  but  once,  in  the 
middle,  from  side  to  side,  and  the  envelope 
135 


SUCCESS      IN     LETTER     WRITING 

should  be  square,  or  so  as  to  fit  the  paper  when 
thus  folded.  If  the  paper  is  square,  the  envel- 
ope will  necessarily  be  oblong. 

Crests  and  monograms  are  falling  somewhat 
into  disuse,  and  in  their  place  we  now  find  the 
house  number  and  street,  usually  without  the 
city  or  town  and  State,  about  three-quarters  of 
an  inch  from  the  top  of  the  sheet,  in  the  middle, 
or  a  little  to  the  right  of  the  middle.  Black, 
red,  blue,  or  brown  may  be  used  for  the  letter- 
ing. A  monogram  and  the  address  together 
are  sometimes  used.  Men  often  include  the 
name  as  well  as  the  full  address,  placing  them 
in  the  left-hand  corner. 

Abbreviations  and   Figures 

In  social  correspondence  the  abbreviations  and 
figures  common  in  business  correspondence  are 
not  permitted. 

Figures  are  to  be  used  only  for  the  house 
number,  and  in  informal  notes  for  the  day  of 
the  month,  and  hours. 

Only  titles  of  persons  are  abbreviated,  but 
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SOCIAL     FORMS     AND     CUSTOMS 

"Reverend"    should   not   be    abbreviated,    and 
should  be  preceded  by  "the." 

Days  of  the  month,  days  of  the  week,  and 
the  months,  should  be  spelled  out  in  full  in  formal 
letters  written  by  women.  The  year  is  usually 
not  given  in  social  letters. 

Arrangement  of  a  Social   Letter 

If  the  address  is  engraved  at  the  head  of  the 
letter,  the  date  may  be  written  first,  just  below 
the  address,  a  little  to  the  right,  as  "January  the 
tenth,"  "Tuesday  the  tenth,"  or  the  like;  or 
the  date  may  be  placed  at  the  end,  after  the  sig- 
nature, on  the  left-hand  side,  and  if  the  ad- 
dress is  to  be  written  it  also  may  be  placed  at  the 
end  before  the  date.  It  is  usual  to  place  the 
date  at  the  head  in  the  case  of  long  letters,  and 
at  the  end  in  the  case  of  notes. 

In  social  letters  it  is  very  unusual  to  give  the 
full  name  and  address  of  the  person  written  to, 
either  at  the  beginning  or  the  end  of  the  letter, 
if  the  salutation  includes  the  name.  In  very 
formal  letters  beginning  "  Dear  Sir "  or  "  Dear 
137 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

Madam,"  the  name  and  address  or  name  alone 
should  be  written  at  the  beginning,  on  the  left- 
hand  side. 

In  social  letter  writing  the  margin  required 
on  business  letters  is  not  insisted  on,  because  the 
size  of  the  paper  is  so  small  that  all  the  space 
possible  is  needed  for  the  writing.  Care  should 
be  taken  not  to  crowd  the  letter,  however. 

Typewriting  is  not  permitted  in  social  cor- 
respondence. 

The  Salutation 

In  writing  to  a  person  with  whom  one  has 
no  social  acquaintance  the  formal   "  Dear  Sir " 
or  "  Dear  Madam "  may  follow  the  full  name, 
as: 
Mr.  HENRY  ARTHUR  JONES, 

DEAR  SIR  : 
or 
Mrs.  JAMES  H.  ANDERSON, 

DEAR  MADAM  : 

The  address  after  the  name  may  be  omitted 
only  in  strictly  social  letters.     If  the  letter  is  one 
138 


SOCIAL     FORMS     AND     CUSTOMS 

on  business,  the  regular  business  style  is  to  be 
adhered  to,  though  ladies  are  permitted  to  em- 
ploy social  forms  in  business  letters. 

Official  letters  begin  "Sir"  or  "Madam," 
omitting  the  "  Dear." 

All  ordinary  social  letters  begin  "My  dear 
Mrs.  Blakely,"  or  "Dear  Mrs.  Blakely."  "My 
dear "  is  considered  more  formal  than  "  Dear " 
alone.  After  "  My,"  "  dear  "  should  never  be- 
gin with  a  capital. 

If  the  name  is  contained  in  the  salutation,  it 
should  not  be  written  above. 

"Dear  Friend"  or  "  Friend  Jones,"  and  similar 
salutations,  are  no  longer  considered  good  form. 

The  proper  punctuation  after  the  salutation 
is  a  colon  or  a  comma  and  a  dash.  The  comma 
and  dash  are  perhaps  most  frequently  used 
by  ladies,  but  men  accustomed  to  writing 
business  letters  seem  to  prefer  the  colon. 

The  Close 

The  most   commonplace   close  for   a   social 
letter  is  "Very  truly  yours."     The  plain  "Yours 
139 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

truly"  is  not  considered  good  form  in  a  social 
letter.  "Very  truly"  and  similar  forms  which 
omit  "  yours  "  are  not  looked  on  with  favor. 

A  lady  will  usually  sign  herself  "Cordially 
yours,"  or  to  a  more  or  less  intimate  friend 
"  Sincerely  yours,"  and  a  man  "  Faithfully 
yours,"  or  "Sincerely  yours,"  or  "Yours  very 
sincerely,"  or  the  like.  "Respectfully  yours," 
"  Your  obedient  servant,"  etc.,  are  no  longer  in 
fashion. 

The  close  should  always  harmonize  with  the 
salutation.  To  begin  a  letter  "My  darling 
Marie"  and  sign  it  "Yours  truly"  or  even 
"Cordially  yours"  would  be  an  absurdity. 

Observe  that  only  the  first  word  of  the  com- 
plimentary close  should  begin  with  a  capital 
letter,  and  this  close  should  not  be  placed  too 
far  to  the  right  or  the  left  of  the  paper. 

A  lady  usually  signs  her  own  full  name.  If 
she  is  unknown  to  the  person  she  addresses  she 
may  add  below,  usually  to  the  left,  and  in  paren- 
thesis, her  husband's  name  preceded  by  "  Mrs.," 
as  "(Mrs.  Henry  James)";  or  she  may  precede 
140 


SOCIAL     FORMS     AND     CUSTOMS 

her  own  name  by  "  Mrs."  or  "  Miss  "  in  paren- 
thesis. For  a  woman  to  sign  herself  "Mrs. 
Jones,"  or  "Mrs.  Luella  Jones,"  or  the  like, 
with  no  parenthesis  about  the  "Mrs."  is 
considered  especially  vulgar.  Some  ladies  with 
social  pretensions  do  this  when  writing  to  a 
servant  or  tradesperson,  to  avoid  the  familiarity 
implied  in  signing  their  names.  Such  letters 
should  be  written  in  the  third  person,  however, 
or  with  the  "  Mrs."  in  parenthesis. 

A  man  should  sign  either  his  initials  or  his 
full  name.  Women  very  seldom  sign  initials. 
If  a  man  uses  his  middle  name  and  indicates 
his  first  name  with  an  initial,  it  is  better  to  drop 
the  first  initial  altogether.  A  middle  initial  is 
permitted.  This,  however,  is  largely  a  matter 
of  personal  preference. 

It  is  considered  bad  form  for  a  man  to  attach 
any  titles  to  his  signature,  either  before  or  after, 
and  such  a  signature  as  "Dr.  Brown"  is  dis- 
tinctly bad  form. 


141 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

Notes  in  the  Third  Person 
A  lady  in  society,  instead  of  writing  ordinary 
business  letters,  addresses  servants,  tradespeo- 
ple, etc.,  in  the  third  person.  In  letters  of  this 
kind  the  name  of  the  person  writing  always 
comes  first,  and  is  immediately  followed  by  the 
name  of  the  person  written  to,  as  "  Mrs.  Henry 
Brown  would  like  to  have  Mrs.  Maguire 
call  Tuesday  evening  to  see  her  in  regard  to 
washing  some  laces.  It  will  be  considered  a 
favor  if  Mrs.  Maguire  will  be  punctual  at  eight 
o'clock." 

Of  course  me,  /,  you,  us,  etc.,  indeed  all 
pronouns  of  the  first  or  second  person,  should 
never  be  found  in  a  note  of  this  kind.  Under 
no  circumstances  should  the  name  of  the 
writer  be  signed  at  the  end.  It  always  appears 
first. 

This  form  sounds  like  an  affectation  if  used 
in  addressing  servants  or  tradespeople  with  whom 
the  lady  is  well  acquainted.  A  person  who  has 
suddenly  come  into  social  position  will  some- 
times adopt  this  method,  but  the  lady  of  natural 
142 


SOCIAL  FORMS  AND  CUSTOMS 

breeding  will  write  to  subordinates  almost  as 
she  would  to  social  equals,  though  carefully 
drawing  the  line  between  friendliness  and 
familiarity.  It  is  friendliness  to  subordinates 
that  binds  them  to  one's  service,  and  a  quiet 
dignity  and  indescribable  reserve  effectually 
keep  them  in  their  places. 

Invitations 

There  are  two  kinds  of  invitations,  the  formal 
and  the  informal.  For  the  informal,  friendly 
notes  are  usually  written;  for  the  formal,  en- 
graved cards  or  note-paper  sheets  are  common, 
though  the  same  style  is  followed  if  the  invita- 
tions are  written  by  hand. 

There  is  no  better  general  form  than  that 
used  by  the  English  ambassador  at  Rome,  who 
has  engraved  blank  cards  in  which  the  name  is 
filled  in  by  hand.  The  date  may  also  be  left 
blank  to  be  filled  in  in  the  same  way. 


143 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

Sir  Augustus  and  Lady  Paget 
request  the  pleasure  of 

's  company 

on  Thursday  evening,  November  fifteenth,  at 

ten  o'clock. 
The  favor  of  an  answer  is  requested. 

R.  s.  v.  p.  (for  Repondez,  s'il  vous  plait)  — 
notice  that  only  the  first  letter  should  be  capital- 
ized —  seems  to  be  giving  way  to  the  plain  Eng- 
lish "The  favor  of  an  answer  is  requested." 
One  of  these  forms  is  used  only  when  it  is  impor- 
tant to  know  whether  the  person  invited  is  to 
come  or  not,  as  in  the  case  of  a  dinner  party, 
luncheon,  theatre  party,  or  the  like,  for  which 
provision  has  to  be  made  in  advance.  Many 
omit  this  even  in  such  cases,  on  the  ground  that 
every  well-bred  person  will  have  the  innate  cour- 
tesy to  accept  or  decline  immediately  all  invita- 
tions to  dinners,  luncheons,  etc.  Invitations  to 
"  at  homes,"  general  receptions,  large  church 
weddings,  and  the  like,  require  no  acceptance 
144 


SOCIAL     FORMS    AND    CUSTOMS 

or  declination  except  the  presence  of  the  person 
at  the  time  indicated,  or  cards  sent  at  the  time 
of  the  function  or  soon  after. 

It  is  well  to  include  the  house  number  in 
invitations,  as  in  the  following: 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Joseph  Duryea 

request  the  pleasure  of 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Henry  Somerset's  company  at  dinner 
May  second,  at  seven  o'clock, 
4465  West  Fifty-ninth  Street. 

Invitations  to  receptions,  teas,  balls,  dancing 
parties  of  any  kind,  etc.,  when  sent  out  by  a  lady 
are  usually  in  the  form  of  ordinary  "at  home" 
cards: 

Mrs.  Henry  James 

Miss  James 
AT  HOME 
Wednesday,  November  fifth 

at  ten  o'clock 

Dancing  547  Tenth  Street. 

145 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

In  place  of  "Dancing"  may  appear  "Garden 
Party  "  or  whatever  the  function  may  be. 

A  gentleman,  however,  is  never  "  at  home," 
but  in  issuing  invitations  must  always  "  request 
the  pleasure  of  —s  company"  or  "thfi 

honor  of —s  company." 

Clubs  in  sending  out  invitations  use  a  some- 
what different  form,  such  as  — 

The  honor  of  your  presence 
is  requested  at  the  New   Year's  Eve  Ball 

o}  the  Lake  Shore  Yacht  Club, 

on  Tuesday  evening,  December  Thirty-first) 

at  half-past  ten  o'clock 

1919-1920. 

No  name  is  inserted,  but  the  various  mem 
bers  send  these  invitations  with  their  personal!; 
cards,    and   usually   admission   tickets   are    alsd 
inclosed,  which  are  taken  up  at  the  door  by  the 
attendants. 

The    word    "  ball "    may    not    be    used    in| 
any  private   invitation,  though   it    is   commonly 
146 


SOCIAL     FORMS     AND     CUSTOMS 

found  in   invitations   to    public    or   club    enter- 
tainments. 

Acceptances  and   Declinations 

Invitations  are  accepted  or  declined  in  the 
same  form  in  which  they  are  sent,  and  should  be 
addressed  to  the  persons  in  whose  names  the 
invitations  are  issued.  Thus: 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  Fielding 

accept  with  pleasure  the  polite  invitation  of 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  Barton  for  dinner 

on  January  fifth, 

at  seven  o  clock. 

The  date,  etc.,  are  always  repeated. 

As  the  acceptance  is  usually  written  on  an 
ordinary  sheet  of  note-paper,  it  is  usually  best 
not  to  try  to  adjust  the  lines  as  they  are  in  an 
engraved  invitation,  but  to  write  simply  — 


147 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

21  Waverly  Place, 

January  third. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  Brown  accept  with  pleas- 
ure Mrs.  Henry  Field 's  polite  invitation  for  din- 
ner on  Thursday  evening,  January  seventeenth, 
at  seven  o'clock. 

Regrets  may  be  worded  as  follows : 

21  Waverly  Place, 

January  third. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  Brown  regret  that  they 
are  unable  to  accept  Mrs.  Henry  Field's  polite 
invitation  for  dinner  on  Thursday  evening,  Jan- 
uary seventeenth,  on  account  of  a  previous  en- 
gagement. 


148 


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149 


COSMOS  CLUB 
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150 


SOCIAL     FORMS     AND     CUSTOMS 

Envelopes 

A  married  woman  is  addressed  by  her  hus- 
band's name  preceded  by  "Mrs."  When  there 
are  several  daughters  in  the  family,  the  eldest 
daughter  is  addressed  as  simply  "Miss  Worth- 
ington "  or  the  like,  and  the  others  by  their 
names,  as  "  Miss  Luella  Worthington."  If  there 
is  danger  that  the  letter  may  go  astray,  the 
full  name  of  the  lady  in  the  first  instance  also 
should  be  written. 

Though   a   married   woman   signs   her   own 

name,  it  is  not  considered  good  form  to  use  it 

in  addressing  an  envelope  to  her,  as  "  Mrs.  Grace 

H.  Cummings,"  but  rather  use  her  husband's 

|  name,  even  if  he  has  long  been  dead,  as  "  Mrs. 

S.  H.  Richardson,"  though  when  a  woman  is 

|  in  business  she  is  usually  addressed  by  her  own 

:  name. 

In  addressing  business  letters  to  persons  or 
firms  residing  or  doing  business  in  the  same  city 
in  which  the  letter  is  posted,  either  the  name  of 
the  city  follows  the  street  address  (or,  if  there  is 
none,  the  name)  or  its  place  is  filled  by  the  word 
151 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER      WRITING 

"  City."  In  the  case  of  social  letters  the  same 
rule  is  followed,  with  the  preference  more  often 
given  to  "City,"  perhaps. 

A  comma  after  each  item  except  the  last, 
which  is  to  be  followed  by  a  period,  is  the  usual 
form  of  punctuation,  but  nowadays  many  omit 
all  punctuation  marks  except  to  indicate  abbre- 
viations and  set  off  titles,  as  in  "  James  Cooke, 

Esq." 

Postal  Cards 

Postal  cards  are  usually  avoided  in  social 
correspondence,  and  all  terms  of  affection  or  en- 
dearment are  omitted,  including  usually  the 
ordinary  salutations  and  complimentary  closes. 
They  are  used  almost  entirely  for  sending  a  word 
of  greeting  when  one  is  on  a  journey  and  noth- 
ing else  is  available. 


152 


CHAPTER  II 

HOW  TO  BE  AGREEABLE  IN  A 
SOCIAL  LETTER 


CHAPTER  II 


HOW  TO  BE  AGREEABLE  IN  A  SOCIAL 
LETTER 

rilHERE  is  as  much  difference  between  a  bril- 
**•  liant  social  letter  writer  and  an  ordinary 
dull  one  as  there  is  between  a  brilliant  conver- 
sationalist and  a  stupid  one.  The  art  of  written 
expression,  however,  is  so  different  that  many 
a  good  talker  makes  a  very  poor  letter  writer. 
Yet  a  good  letter  is  one  that  comes  as  near  as 
possible  to  producing  the  effect  of  a  good  talk. 

Suppose  you  have  met  a  young  lady  you 
like,  and  as  you  sit  down  of  an  evening  you  think 
of  her  and  her  lively  ways  and  wish  you  could 
go  across  the  street  and  make  a  call  upon 
her.  But  she  is  far  away,  and  the  best  you  can 
do  is  to  write  her  a  letter.  You  place  yourself 
at  your  desk  with  pen  in  hand,  and  immediately 
all  the  gay  things  you  would  say  to  her  if  you 
155 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

were  calling  upon  her,  evaporate,  and  you  begin 
to  make  some  stupid,  commonplace  remarks, 
and  realize  that  your  letter  is  not  going  to  be  a 
success. 

The  reason  for  your  failure  is  that  you  lack 
imagination,  and  if  you  wish  to  succeed  you  must 
cultivate  imagination.  If  you  can  see  the  young 
lady  sitting  opposite  you,  and  can  hear  her  lively 
replies,  you  will  proceed  to  keep  up  your  end 
of  the  imaginary  dialogue  and  produce  a  bril- 
liant letter.  But  if  your  imagination  is  inca- 
pable of  filling  in  all  the  blanks,  and  you  can 
only  respond  to  her  lively  sallies  (which  you  do 
not  hear),  you  will  be  as  dull  as  if  you  were  writ- 
ing to  a  fencepost. 

But  what  shall  you  talk  about?  you  ask. 

When  two  people  meet  they  talk  about  them- 
selves, their  likes,  their  dislikes,  their  friends, 
the  parties  they  have  been  to,  the  plays  they 
have  seen,  the  books  they  have  read.  These 
are  the  best  subjects  for  friendly  letters,  if  the 
letters  are  to  be  more  than  mere  notes  (which 
are  not  letters  at  all). 

156 


AGREEABLE  SOCIAL  LETTERS 

All  depends,  however,  on  the  character  of 
the  person  to  whom  you  are  writing,  just  as  your 
conversation  would  be  very  different  if  you  were 
talking  to  a  gay  young  girl,  or  to  an  elderly  spin- 
ster, or  to  a  sedate  married  woman. 

If  you  are  writing  to  a  young  lady  who  has 
shown  a  liking  for  you,  and  whose  society  you 
have  enjoyed,  probably  the  most  interesting 
thing  you  can  talk  about  to  begin  with  is  yourself. 
Let  us  try  the  experiment : 

MY  DEAR  Miss  BRADLEY  : 

I  have  just  come  into  my  bachelor  den  after 
dinner,  and  as  I  sit  alone  smoking  my  pipe 
my  mind  has  wandered  over  the  list  of  my  ac- 
quaintances to  pick  out  the  one  with  whom  best 
of  all  I  should  like  a  quiet  little  chat.  I  have 
decided  that  if  all  my  women  friends  were  across 
the  street,  and  I  could  find  any  one  of  them  "at 
home"  on  whom  I  should  choose  to  call,  I  would 
select  you  without  a  moment's  hesitation.  I  am 
in  just  the  mood  when  I  need  the  tonic  of  your 
gay  remarks,  and  when  I  should  be  completely 
157 


SUCCESS      IN      LETTER     WRITING 

happy  if  I  could  hear  your  sweet  music — the 
gentle  touch  of  your  fingers  on  the  piano  or  the 
sympathetic  sweetness  of  your  voice. 


That  would  do  for  the  young  lady  who  had 
a  sentimental  turn;  but  for  the  married  woman 
who  had  condescended  to  like  and  entertain  you, 
a  very  different  vein  would  be  required  for  suc- 
cess. Such  a  woman  would  be  insulted  by  the 
familiar  sentiment  that  would  just  please  the  girl. 

For  example: 

MY  DEAR  MRS.  BRADLEY: 

Here  I  am  in  New  York,  comfortably  settled 
in  my  bachelor  quarters,  but  without  a  single 
woman  friend  within  reach  who  can  correct  my 
morals  and  solace  my  loneliness.  If  you  were 
here,  I  know  you  would  take  pity  on  me;  but 
since  you  are  not,  let  me  spend  an  imaginary 
evening  with  you. 

Let  me  describe  my  den.  It  is  two  blocks 
east  of  Fifth  Avenue  on  Forty-fourth  Street.  I 
158 


AGREEABLE  SOCIAL  LETTERS 

have  three  rooms,  and  one  of  them  is  —  will 
you  believe  it?  —  a  kitchen.  I  am  very  proud 
of  my  cooking.  I  can  broil  a  beefsteak  to  a 
turn,  and  make  as  good  a  cup  of  coffee  as 
—  not  as  you,  no,  but  much  better  than  our  cook 
used  to  make  at  home. 

Of  course  I  get  my  luncheons  down  town, 
and  I  go  every  night  to  dinner  at  Madame  Chi- 
china's.  Her  table  d'hote  Italian  dinners  at  forty 
cents  beat  anything  I  ever  tasted  in  any  other 
public  eating-house,  I  don't  care  at  what  price. 
I  never  know  what  is  coming,  I  always  eat  up 
everything  set  before  me,  and  however  hungry 
I  am,  at  the  end  of  an  hour  I  am  always  satis- 
fied. I  never  saw  anything  like  it  before.  And 
it  agrees  with  my  digestion  so  perfectly  that  I 
regard  it  as  better  than  any  medicine. 

But  it  takes  an  hour.  You  can't  get  served 
with  all  the  courses  sooner.  Then  how  I  wish 
I  had  opposite  me  to  talk  to  some  of  the  old 
friends  at  home!  How  we  would  discuss  Ber- 
nard Shaw's  latest  play  (I  saw  it  the  other  night, 
and  Loraine  in  the  title  part  was  great),  or  the 
159 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

latest  novel,  or  the  picture  shows,  or  the  New 
York  social  atmosphere,  or  how  a  young  man 
should  behave  toward  unmarried  girls  —  when  he 
can't  get  within  a  block  of  one  in  this  self- 
contained  city. 


Social  letter  writing  is  distinctly  a  literary 
art.  There  are  two  elements  that  are  essential; 
the  first,  to  have  thoughts  in  which  your  friend 
will  be  interested,  or  which  you  can  share 
with  that  friend,  and  the  second  is  the  gift  of 
expression  by  written  words. 

No  man  or  woman  can  be  a  successful  social 
letter  writer  unless  he  has  the  gift  of  friendship, 
the  sympathetic  heart  that  loves  and  the  intelli- 
gence to  understand  the  friend  who  is  loved, 
Social  letter  writing  must  be  more  or  less  per- 
sonal. If  the  personalities  of  the  friends  do  not 
serve  as  a  subject  to  write  about,  still  the  subject 
must  be  their  common  likes  and  dislikes,  their 
common  thoughts  about  books  and  affairs  and 
men  and  women.  You  cannot  entertain  your 
160 


AGREEABLE  SOCIAL  LETTERS 

friend  unless  you  know  the  nature  of  your  friend, 
and  what  will  appeal  to  him  or  her.  It  is  hard  to 
write  a  good  social  letter  to  a  perfect  stranger, 
since  there  is  nothing  in  common  of  which  you 
know,  and  which  you  can  write  about. 

But  the  gift  of  friendship  and  sympathetic 
knowledge  of  your  friend  are  not  the  only  re- 
quirements. Expression  in  written  words  is  an 
art  in  itself,  and  one  absolutely  essential  to  suc- 
cess in  social  letter  writing.  How  is  that  all 
to  be  learned? 

The  best  way  to  learn  it  is  to  rewrite  good 
models.  Find  some  letters  such  as  you  your- 
self would  like  to  write,  written  by  the  best 
letter  writers,  and  write  letters  of  your  own, 
about  subjects  with  which  you  are  acquainted 
and  in  which  your  friends  will .  be  interested, 
but  just  as  nearly  like  the  models  as  pos- 
sible. 

One  of  the  best  models  for  modern  letter 
writing  is  Stevenson.    Two  volumes  of  his  letters 
have   been    published,    and    any   man    or   wo- 
man who  will  rewrite  all  those  letters,  one  after 
161 


SUCCESS     IN      LETTER     WRITING 

the  other,  at  suitable  intervals,  can  hardly  escape 
being  a  pretty  good  letter  writer  so  far  as  the 
art  of  written  expression  is  concerned. 

Another  good  book  of  models  for  the  modern 
letter  writer  is  the  small  collection  of  letters 
to  Gladstone's  daughters  which  Ruskin  wrote. 
They  are  simple  social  friendly  letters  such  as 
any  man  might  write  to  young  women  acquaint- 
ances, and  they  are  full  of  the  charm  and  grace 
of  the  most  accomplished  of  modern  writers  of 
English. 

Among  old  writers,  Charles  Lamb  is  perhaps 
the  best.  His  letters,  published  in  several  edi- 
tions, are  among  the  most  charming  of  his  com- 
positions. He  had  the  gift  of  friendship  highly 
developed,  and  he  had  the  gift  of  literary  ex- 
pression also.  Of  course  his  letters  are  a  little 
antique  in  style.  In  rewriting  them  it  is  neces- 
sary constantly  to  try  to  find  modern  phrases 
for  those  Lamb  used  which  are  no  longer  cur- 
rent; but  this  effort  at  translation  will  be  one 
of  the  best  exercises  for  the  more  or  less  ad- 
vanced student. 

162 


AGREEABLE  SOCIAL  LETTERS 

These  three  writers  are  probably  the  most 
accomplished  and  the  best  to  imitate  of  any  within 
the  reach  of  the  modern  student,  and  these  three 
are  enough.  It  is  better  to  master  a  few  than 
to  range  over  many  without  carefully  studying 
them. 

If  a  model  of  a  hard,  commonsense,  practical 
style  is  desired,  Franklin  is  the  best  writer  to 
study  and  imitate;  but  very  few  will  care  to  sac- 
rifice grace  and  charm  in  letter  writing. 


168 


CHAPTER  III 

HOW  TO  DECLINE  WITHOUT 
OFFENCE 


CHAPTER  III 


HOW  TO  DECLINE  WITHOUT  OFFENCE 

"VJOT  the  least  difficult  or  essential  phase  of 
•*"^  letter  writing  is  the  art  of  apology  in  a 
letter,  of  declining  without  offence,  of  saying  dis- 
agreeable things  in  an  agreeable  way. 

There  is  probably  nothing  so  brutal,  noth- 
ing so  cutting,  nothing  so  disappointing,  that  it 
cannot  be  said  in  such  a  way  as  to  bind  a  friend 
rather  than  drive  him  or  her  away. 

The  secret  of  the  whole  art  is  sympathetic 
consideration  for  the  feelings  of  the  person  written 
to.  Excuses  may  be  hollow,  apologies  may  be 
empty,  but  they  save  friendship.  On  the  con- 
trary the  most  agreeable  thing  in  the  world  said 
in  an  abrupt  way  may  ruin  friendship. 

The  art  and  habit  of  apology  can  be  learned. 
Indeed  abruptness  is  often  a  bad  habit  into 
which  a  person  falls  without  thought,  and 
167 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

does    not  signify  the  unkindness  that  seems  to 
dwell    in    it. 

But  at  bottom  the  keeping  of  friends  is  a 
matter  of  unselfishness.  The  person  who  thinks 
all  the  time  wholly  of  himself  or  herself  will  not 
be  likely  to  be  polite  in  letter  writing,  but  the 
person  who  thinks  habitually  of  the  feelings  and 
disappointments  of  others,  will  inevitably  be 
polite  and  give  no  offence. 

It  is  all  in  the  point  of  view  from  which  a 
letter  is  written.  The  person  who  thinks,  "I 
won't  do  it.  I  know  you  won't  like  it,  but  I 
can't  help  it,"  will  be  sure  to  write  a  letter  that 
will  drive  away  all  friendship.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  thought  is  all  of  the  disappointment 
that  will  result  to  the  friend,  of  the  unhappi- 
ness  that  this  suffering  will  cause  the  person 
who  is  forced  to  decline  or  deny,  the  denial  itself 
is  almost  lost  sight  of,  and  is  passed  with  very 
little  notice.  It  is  a  universal  rule  that  if  atten- 
tion is  fixed  on  one  thing  (such  as  the  apology, 
the  disappointment  the  refusal  will  cost),  a 
son  will  be  oblivious  to  the  actual  refusal. 
168 


DECLINING     WITHOUT    OFFENCE 

Let  us  take  so  simple  a  matter  as  refusing 
a  loan  to  an  impecunious  friend.  Perhaps  you 
have  adopted  the  rule  that  a  loan  is  not  to  be 
made  to  a  friend  unless  you  are  in  a  position  to 
consider  it  a  gift.  The  friend  has  some  pet 
project  he  wishes  to  promote;  he  feels  sure  he 
will  win  and  be  able  to  repay  you  twice  over, 
but  you  suspect  from  experience  that  he  will 
be  unfortunate,  and  it  is  better  for  him  not  to 
make  the  venture  at  all.  Now,  if  you  think 
only  of  your  desire  to  keep  your  money,  and 
tell  your  friend  you  can't  afford  to  waste  your 
means  on  his  wildcat  ventures,  you  will  offend 
him.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  you  concentrate 
attention  on  your  regret,  he  will  be  led  to  think 
more  of  your  friendship  than  of  your  refusal, 
and  while  he  may  be  irritated  for  the  moment, 
he  cannot  be  permanently  offended.  Such  a 
letter  as  this  might  answer  the  purpose: 

MY  DEAR  CHARLIE: 

I  certainly  wish  I  were  a  millionaire,  for  if 
I  were  it  would  give  me  the  greatest  pleasure 
169 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

in  the  world  to  make  the  loan  you  ask.  I  am 
driven  to  refuse  because  my  funds  are  so  very 
limited  I  cannot  do  what  you  wish  just  now 
without  great  personal  inconvenience.  You  will 
not  think  my  friendship  the  less,  however,  and 
sometime  when  your  need  is  greater,  perhaps 
my  resources  will  be  more  ample. 

However,  I  wish  I  might  console  you.  Just 
think  of  it  in  this  way:  Destiny  has  already 
fixed  the  fact  that  you  would  lose  or  win  in  this 
adventure.  If  it  has  been  decreed  that  you 
lose,  my  inability  to  help  you  will  prevent 
your  being  under  an  unpleasant  obligation 
to  me,  you  will  be  saved  the  worry  of  squeez- 
ing yourself  to  pay  off  a  debt  you  can 
ill  afford;  and  if  you  are  no  happier  by 
reason  of  the  good  fortune  that  might  pos- 
sibly be  in  store  for  you,  you  escape  the  un- 
happiness  involved  in  failure. 

I  know  consolation  of  this  kind  is  not  very 

satisfactory,  but  you,  I  am  sure,  will  take  the 

will  for  the  deed,  and  believe  me  still  your  friend, 

only  waiting  for  an  opportunity  when  fate  will 

170 


DECLINING    WITHOUT    OFFENCE 

permit  me  to  serve  you  better  than  I  can  on 
this  occasion. 

With  best  wishes,  as  ever 

Sincerely  yours, 

A  letter  like  this  is  good-tempered  and  friendly, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  quarrel  when  there  is  no  one 
to  quarrel  with.  If  you  felt  contempt  toward 
your  friend  for  asking  the  loan,  it  would  be  sure 
to  creep  into  your  letter,  and  he  would  feel  angry 
at  the  injustice  of  your  contempt.  If  you  do 
not  permit  yourself  to  feel  contemptuous  or  dis- 
agreeable, there  will  be  little  reason  for  your 
friend  to  feel  so.  His  feelings  will  be  very  much 
what  yours  are.  This  is  a  world  of  reflections. 
Fill  the  air  with  blueness,  and  blueness  will 
come  back  to  you ;  fill  it  with  yellow  sunshine,  and 
yellow  sunshine  will  be  reflected  back  to  you. 

Let  us  take  a  different  situation.  You  are 
a  lady,  and  a  friend  of  the  same  sex  has  invited 
you  to  a  theatre  party  she  is  very  anxious  to 
have  you  attend.  Some  more  agreeable  oppor- 
tunity opens  before  you,  and  you  do  not  wish  to 
171 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER    WRITING 

accept  the  first  invitation.  Since  your  reason 
is  a  selfish  one,  you  will  probably  act  in  a  selfish 
way  and  give  the  offence  that  a  selfish  person 
would  give.  A  man  in  such  a  situation  would 
send  curt  regrets;  a  woman  would  probably  do 
nothing  at  all.  Both  would  give  lasting  offence. 
In  either  case  a  polite  and  friendly  letter  would 
save  any  lasting  ill-feelings. 

Such  a  letter  should  not  contain  any  lies.  It 
is  easy  enough  to  give  false  reasons,  which  will 
satisfy  for  the  time  being  but  give  still  greater 
offence  when  they  are  found  out.  The  true  art 
is  to  tell  the  simple  truth  (or  so  much  of  it  as  you 
choose)  in  an  agreeable  way;  and  this  is  a  gen- 
uine literary  art.  The  following  letter  might 
answer : 

MY  DEAR  MRS.  BRADLEY: 

I  am  afraid  you  will  hardly  forgive  me,  but 
I  am  going  to  tell  you  that  it  will  be  impossible 
for  me  to  join  your  theatre  party  Wednesday 
evening.  You  don't  know  how  sorry  I  am  for 
the  chance  that  makes  this  impossible.  A  thing 
172 


DECLINING    WITHOUT    OFFENCE 

for  which  I  have  been  working  for  a  long,  long 
time  has  developed  in  just  such  a  way  that  I  must 
sacrifice  either  my  pleasure  or  my  interest,  and 
I  know  perfectly  well  which  you  would  advise 
me  to  do.  If  I  could  tell  you  all  the  circum- 
stances I  am  sure  you  would  say  I  could  not 
do  otherwise  than  forego  the  great  pleasure  you 
have  planned  for  me.  I  appreciate  your  kind- 
ness and  thoughtfulness  in  my  behalf  none  the 
less.  I  am  just  as  grateful  to  you,  and  I  hope 
some  time  in  the  future  to  more  than  make  up 
for  the  present  unfortunate  combination  of  events. 

Find  some  one  else  to  take  my  place  better 
than  I  could  fill  it  myself,  and  may  you  have  the 
most  delightful  time  in  the  world! 

With  much  regret,  as  ever, 

Most  sincerely  yours, 

Evelyn  Brown. 

The  thoughtfulness  involved  in  making  the 
effort  to  write  a  considerate  letter  like  this  does 
much  to  atone  for  the  disappointment  of  the 
refusal. 

173 


CHAPTER  IV 

HOW  TO  MAKE  AND  KEEP 
FRIENDS 


CHAPTER  IV 


HOW  TO  MAKE  AND  KEEP  FRIENDS 

T  ETTER  writing  as  a  fine  art  resolves  itself 
*— *  into  the  art  of  being  able  to  make  and  keep 
friends.  The  great  letter  writers  are  the  per- 
sons like  Stevenson  and  Ruskin  and  Lamb,  who 
had  a  real  talent  for  friendship,  while  men  and 
women  otherwise  great  who  have  lacked  this 
special  talent  have  failed  as  letter  writers.  It  is 
the  art  of  friendship  that  develops  the  art  of 
friendly  expression. 

The  world  is  full  of  lonely  and  isolated  people 
who  long  for  friendship,  but  fail  to  find  it.  The 
reason  for  their  failure  is  lack  of  systematic  effort 
to  get  it.  A  certain  timidity  may  interfere  with 
personal  conversation  and  social  pleasures;  but 
letter  writing  is  always  a  resource  left  to  these 
timid  ones.  If  the  pleasure  of  brilliant  conver- 
sation is  denied  one,  a  certain  cleverness  of 
177 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER    WRITING 

expression  in  letters  may  often  be  cultivated  in 
place  of  it  and  go  far  to  compensate  the  loss  so 
deeply  regretted. 

In  all  literary  expression,  the  human  nature 
involved  is  of  far  greater  importance  than  the 
form.  Yet  we  find  books  filled  with  forms,  and 
few  in  which  any  hint  is  given  of  the  fundamental 
human  conditions. 

Suppose,  therefore,  that  you  have  resolved  to 
cultivate  friendships  by  letter.  With  the  usual 
natural  human  selfishness  you  probably  set  your 
eyes  with  longing  upon  those  more  brilliant  and 
entertaining  than  you  are  yourself,  and  you  feel 
disappointed  if  you  do  not  win  their  attention 
at  once. 

The  mistake  is  your  own.  Success  in  any- 
thing seldom  comes  from  ambitious  striving  for 
what  is  above  you,  but  rather  from  effort  to  serve 
that  which  is  below  you,  not  in  a  spirit  of  charity, 
but  of  broad  human  sympathy. 

There  is  always  in  the  world  some  one  just 
a  bit  more  lonely  than  you  are  who  would  appre- 
ciate your  attention.  Even  from  a  literary  point 
178 


TO     MAKE     AND     KEEP     FRIENDS 

of  view  you  can  do  far  better  in  a  letter  to  such 
a  person  than  you  can  to  one  just  above  you. 
When  you  have  to  raise  your  eyes  ever  so  little 
you  acknowledge  yourself  the  subject,  another 
your  superior  and  master.  When  you  lower 
your  eyes  in  the  slightest  degree,  you  become  the 
superior,  you  are  master  of  the  situation.  Your 
timidity  gives  place  to  firmness,  you  express 
yourself  freely  and  effectively,  and  the  success 
you  feel  in  your  efforts  engenders  a  still  higher 
success.  In  literary  expression,  success  is  one 
of  the  most  important  generators  of  success. 

Choose,  therefore,  for  your  correspondents 
those  whom  you  believe  will  appreciate  your  let- 
ters, those  to  whom  you  can  write  with  a  certain 
feeling  of  freedom.  Some  you  will  find  respon- 
sive. Your  success  will  stimulate  them  to  an 
equal  effort,  and  their  response,  which  is  the 
sign  of  your  success,  will  in  turn  stimulate  you. 
The  thing  that  is  needed  on  your  part  is  patient, 
systematic  effort. 

The  secret  of  success  in  social  letter  writing 
is  gracious  attention  to  those  who  will  appreciate 
179 


SUCCESS     IN      LETTER     WRITING 

your  courtesy.  That  systematic  courtesy  on 
your  part  begets  courtesy  in  others,  and  you 
are  surprised  to  find  how  much  courtesy  there 
is  in  the  world  —  for  like  a  sun  you  shine  with 
courtesy,  and  it  is  reflected  back  to  you  with 
additions  and  variations. 

But  permanent  success  in  making  and  hold- 
ing friends  by  letter  requires  something  more. 
Courtesy  is  the  manner.  It  is  a  kindly  robe 
the  writer  throws  over  all  his  words,  a  sunshiny 
atmosphere,  a  graceful  carriage. 

The  manner  is  certainly  of  great  importance, 
but  the  matter  is  of  greater.  Of  what  sub- 
jects shall  friends  write  to  each  other  to  make 
friendship  deeper? 

The  literary  form  that  seems  most  nearly 
universal  in  its  appeal  is  the  novel.  It  is  the 
expression  of  sentiment  and  the  emotional  prob- 
lems of  life.  The  subject  of  letter  writing  be- 
tween friends  who  wish  to  make  letters  a  means 
of  cementing  friendship  should  be  sentiment,  love, 
religion,  ambition,  happiness.  There  are  two 
permanent  characters,  the  writer  and  the  reader 
180 


TO     MAKE     AND     KEEP     FRIENDS 

of  the  letter,  and  everything  that  is  written  must 
be  of  equal  interest  to  both.  The  most  inter- 
esting topic  to  your  friend  is  your  friend  him- 
self or  herself,  and  the  most  available  source  of 
illustration  of  what  you  know  is  yourself.  So 
the  first  topic  to  write  about  is  your  friend,  and, 
of  course,  all  the  outside  matters  that  come  to 
your  attention  bearing  on  this  subject.  It  must 
be  an  impersonal  discussion,  since  personality 
might  give  offence.  And  yet  the  effect  and  bear- 
ing will  be  intensely  personal. 

What  you  know  of  an  emotional  or  personal 
nature  which  you  can  say  that  will  be  of  inter- 
est, you  must  have  learned  from  your  own  emo- 
tional experiences.  Your  experiences  are  the 
source  of  your  knowledge.  So  for  success  in 
this  kind  of  writing  you  must  have  been  an  ob- 
server of  yourself.  Many  have  never  formed  the 
habit  of  self-observation,  and  so  they  never  have 
anything  to  say  that  is  worth  while. 

But  it  is  of  emotions  that  are  past  that  you 
can  write  with  most  success.  Telling  all  one's 
private  affairs,  entirely  without  thought  of  their 
181 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

interest  to  the  reader  of  the  letter,  is  very  likely 
to  result  in  boredom  and  disaster  to  the  cor- 
respondence. The  personal  has  pitfalls  on  two 
sides,  the  side  of  offence  and  the  side  of  bore- 
dom. The  true  art  consists  in  personality  clothed 
in  the  garments  of  impersonality,  always  de- 
signed for  the  entertainment  of  the  person  who 
reads,  and  not  for  the  relief  of  the  person  who 
writes. 

There  is  a  very  close  connection  between 
story  writing  and  personal  letter  writing.  The 
two  arts  are  much  alike,  and  the  successful  story 
writer  is  likely  first  to  have  been  the  successful 
personal  letter  writer.  The  letter  art  is  nar- 
rower and  easier,  and  there  are  few  who  cannot 
practise  it  with  success,  while  story  writing  should 
be  reserved  for  genius. 

The  proper  treatment  of  personality,  senti- 
ment, and  emotion  in  friendly  letter  writing  may 
find  the  best  possible  model  in  literary  fiction. 
To  read  the  novels  of  the  day,  or  see  the  current 
plays,  and  talk  about  them,  is  one  of  the  best 
foundations  for  the  good  letter  that  can  be 
182 


TO     MAKE     AND     KEEP     FRIENDS 

imagined.  The  expression  in  the  book  or  play 
will  be  wider,  more  technical,  more  varied,  but 
it  will  be  in  highly  developed  form  very  much 
what  good  writing  in  the  personal  letter  should 
be.  There  ought  to  be  in  the  letter  some  nar- 
rative of  things  that  have  happened,  such  as 
your  visit  to  the  theatre  or  your  buying  or  bor- 
rowing of  the  book,  some  description  such  as 
a  picture  of  what  you  have  seen  or  read,  and 
some  dialogue,  such  as  would  be  required  by 
the  introduction  of  an  occasional  anecdote.  And 
nothing  is  more  fascinating  than  the  application 
to  your  own  life  or  thought  or  condition  of  the 
principle  illustrated  in  the  work  of  imagination. 
The  novel  or  play  you  must  think  of  as  written 
especially  for  you  and  the  illumination  of  your 
problems  which  may  result;  but  it  is  your  part 
to  select,  consider,  and  apply.  This  you  can  do 
to  best  advantage  in  a  letter.  A  letter  about  a 
book  or  play  has  a  double  advantage,  in  enter- 
taining your  friend,  and  forcing  you  yourself  to 
analyze  and  apply  what  you  have  seen  or  read. 
The  works  of  literary  art  form  a  bond  of  union 
183 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

between  the  whole  world,  but  in  this  union  you 
should  do  your  part,  and  that  part  is  most  obvi- 
ously the  discussion  of  literary  works  in  con- 
versation and  social  letters  with  friends  who  will 
respond  in  their  turn. 


184 


CHAPTER  V 

HOW  MEN  SHOULD  WRITE  TO 
WOMEN  FRIENDS 


CHAPTER  V 

HOW    MEN    SHOULD    WRITE    TO 
WOMEN    FRIENDS 

ONE  of  the  most  delightful  forms  of  social 
intercourse  is  the  writing  of  letters  to  friends 
of  the  other  sex.  One  is  judged  quite  as  much 
by  one's  skill  in  doing  it  as  by  one's  behavior 
in  a  lady's  parlor,  but  it  is  delightfully  more  per- 
sonal, intimate,  and  suggestive.  It  is  rather  like 
the  social  tete-a-tete,  the  confidential  chat  in  the 
boudoir.  Men  and  women  seldom  take  the  trouble 
to  write  very  much  to  acquaintances  of  the  same 
sex  unless  they  find  them  congenial,  indeed  gen- 
uine friends.  In  such  a  friendship  lie  many  of 
the  deepest  pleasures  of  life,  and  nothing  is  more 
refining,  educating,  and  stimulating. 

All  success  in  social  relationships  lies  in  re- 
straint, in  perfect  personal  control.     If  a  man 
has  the  elements  of  this  control  in  his  nature, 
187 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

there  cannot  be  the  slightest  danger  or  impro- 
priety in  corresponding  with  any  lady,  married 
or  unmarried,  young  or  old.  If  this  element  of 
restraint  is  developed,  there  is  hardly  a  subject 
on  which  a  well-bred,  well-educated  man  may 
not  speak  even  freely  to  any  equally  well-bred 
and  well-educated  woman. 

There  are  certain  bounds  and  limitations 
established  by  conventionality  which  must  be 
observed,  however.  Unless  he  can  count  him- 
self an  intimate  personal  friend,  no  man  has  a 
right  to  send  a  woman  a  letter  oftener  than  once 
in  two  weeks.  The  postman  notices  how  often 
he  leaves  a  letter  in  a  given  handwriting;  other 
members  of  the  family  notice,  and  if  a  given 
man  writes  oftener  than  once  in  two  weeks  his 
letters  become  an  embarrassment  for  the  lady 
who  receives  them.  If  their  relation  of  intimate 
friendship  is  well  known  to  all  members  of  the 
family,  and  especially  if  other  members  of  the 
family  may  share  in  the  letters,  it  is  permissible 
to  write  as  often  as  once  a  week.  But  only 
lovers  write  oftener  than  this.  Many  husbands 
188 


MEN     WRITING     TO     WOMEN 

and  wives  when  separated  write  daily,  but  even 
this  is  laughed  at  by  outsiders. 

Again,  letters  must  not  be  too  thick.  Bulky 
letters  are  quite  as  likely  to  embarrass  a  lady  as 
too  frequent  letters.  Two  double  sheets  of  note- 
paper  is  considered  the  limit.  If  one  would 
write  much  one  must  cultivate  the  art  of  a  min- 
iature caligraphy.  That  one  writes  a  sprawly 
hand  is  no  excuse  for  writing  a  bulky  letter. 

Again,  no  gentleman  will  write  to  a  lady  on 
the  typewriter,  least  of  all,  address  the  envelope 
with  the  typewriter,  unless  he  is  very  intimate 
and  is  requested  to  use  a  typewriter  so  that  (be- 
cause of  his  poor  handwriting)  his  letters  may 
be  read.  The  general  supposition  is  that  a  type- 
written letter  is  dictated  to  a  stenographer,  and  as 
one  would  not  hire  a  young  woman  to  go  along 
and  do  one's  talking  for  one,  so  it  is  not  con- 
sidered respectful  to  intrude  a  mere  employee 
into  one's  social  correspondence.  Only  busi- 
ness letters  are  to  be  written  on  the  typewriter. 

Some  men  are  very  fond  of  calling  women 
by  their  given  names,  and  writing  to  them  as 
189 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

"  Dear  Alice  "  or  "  Dear  Jessie."  When  there 
are  many  sisters  in  a  family  and  "  Dear  Miss 
Alice  "  is  the  only  alternative  to  "  Dear  Alice," 
it  is  usually  desirable  to  drop  the  "  Miss  "  as  soon 
as  growing  acquaintance  will  permit  it  without 
offence.  In  such  cases  it  is  always  safe  and 
wise  frankly  to  ask  the  lady  whether  she  will 
permit  the  liberty.  When  an  unmarried  lady  is 
generally  known  among  her  friends  by  her  sur- 
name, it  is  to  be  presumed  that  she  does  not  care 
to  be  addressed  by  her  given  name,  and  he  would 
be  a  man  wanting  in  the  instincts  of  politeness 
who  would  change  "  Dear  Miss  Gardner "  into 
"  Dear  Alice."  In  the  case  of  a  married  woman 
anything  but  "  Dear  Mrs.  Blank "  would  be  an 
extreme  rudeness  except  in  the  rarest  cases,  al- 
most the  only  excuse  being  the  habit  of  having 
used  the  given  name  before  marriage.  If  one 
had  been  writing  to  a  lady  as  "  Dear  Jessie,"  it 
would  seem  offensive  and  unfriendly  to  change 
suddenly  upon  her  marriage  to  "Dear  Mrs. 
Winkley."  But  those  who  did  not  know  the 
lady  before  marriage  should  never  follow  the 
190 


MEN     WRITING     TO     WOMEN 

example  of  those  who  did,  and  address  her  by  her 
first  name. 

I  have  spoken  somewhat  at  length  of  this 
etiquette  of  the  letters  a  man  may  write  to  a  wo- 
man, because  they  do  not  come  up  in  personal 
intercourse  as  a  rule,  and  many  a  man  is  puz- 
zled when  he  "takes  pen  in  hand." 

A  word  may  also  be  said  on  the  close  of  the 
letter.  It  is  usual  to  sign  one's  full  name.  Ini- 
tials are  a  trifle  more  friendly.  The  given  name 
only  should  never  be  signed  unless  the  lady  is 
in  the  habit  of  addressing  the  writer  by  that 
name.  "Cordially  yours"  is  condescending. 
"Sincerely  yours"  is  the  best  form  to  express 
true  friendship.  "  Yours  "  seems  hasty  and  am- 
biguous, since  it  may  mean  much  or  nothing. 
"Affectionately"  is  very  proper  between  broth- 
ers and  sisters,  and  may  even  be  stretched  to 
cousins,  but  is  dangerous  between  mere  social 
acquaintances.  "  Dear  friend  "  suggests  the  coun- 
tryman, but  in  itself  is  not  a  bad  way  of  begin- 
ning, and  "  Your  friend  "  is  the  proper  close  for 
that  beginning. 

191 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

As  I  have  said,  "  restraint  and  consideration 
for  others  is  the  characteristic  of  a  gentleman." 
It  is  especially  easy  to  become  too  intense  in 
writing  to  women,  and  then  all  the  delight  and 
charm  and  pleasure  are  spoiled. 

The  ideal  style  in  writing  to  women  is  one 
that  is  light,  humorous,  and  courteous.  Write 
precisely  as  you  would  talk  to  the  lady  in  her 
drawing-room,  only  better  if  possible.  There  is 
usually  no  more  fascinating  subject  than  your- 
self and  herself,  your  pleasures  and  her  pleas- 
ures, the  books  you  read  and  the  books  she  reads, 
the  plays  you  see  and  the  plays  she  sees,  and 
last  but  not  least,  the  friends  you  have  in  com- 
mon. Success  in  letter  writing  consists  almost 
precisely  in  writing  as  a  good  talker  would  talk. 
Stiff,  literary  English  is  out  of  place  in  a  letter. 
At  the  same  time  a  certain  degree  of  slang  and 
looseness  of  expression  may  be  tolerated  in  con- 
versation that  would  be  very  offensive  in  letters. 
Letter  writing  differs  from  conversation  only  in 
this  slight  degree  of  restraint  and  systematic  care 
for  correctness  in  grammar  and  punctuation. 
192 


MEN     WRITING     TO     WOMEN 

The  best  training  for  social  letter  writing  is 
much  reading  and  talking  about  books.  Unless 
a  man  reads  much  and  talks  about  the  books 
he  reads,  he  is  very  unlikely  to  be  a  successful 
social  letter  writer.  The  familiar  language  of 
novels  is  not  far  removed  from  the  correctly 
conversational  style  for  letters;  but  the  most  per- 
fect models  are  the  letters  of  men  like  Lamb 
and  Stevenson. 


193 


CHAPTER  VI 

MEN'S  LOVE  LETTERS,  THEIR  POSSI- 
BILITIES AND  LIMITATIONS 


CHAPTER  VI 

MEN'S   LOVE    LETTERS,    THEIR    POSSIBILI- 
TIES AND  LIMITATIONS 

\\  7E  know  a  certain  bookstore  which  sells 
eight  thousand  books  on  writing  love 
letters  each  year,  three  thousand  on  writing  busi- 
ness letters,  twenty-five  hundred  on  correct 
English,  etc.  Evidently  writing  love  letters  is 
the  most  nearly  universal  form  of  literary  art. 
Very  few  escape  the  necessity  some  time  in 
their  lives  for  writing  at  least  one  series  of  let- 
ters of  a  more  intensely  personal  kind  than  any 
others  that  are  ever  written. 

What  ought  a  good  love  letter  to  be  ? 

To  answer  in  a  word,  it  should  be  an  inten- 
sified form  of  all  that  goes  to  make  a  good  letter 
of  friendship. 

If  the  writer  is  a  man,  he  addresses  a  person 
of  the  opposite  sex  who  presumably  has  a  finer 
197 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

and  more  delicate  sympathy  with  him  than  any 
one  else  in  the  world,  a  person  drawn  to  him  by 
mystic  ties  of  personal  affection  which  cannot 
be  analyzed  nor  understood,  a  person  he  hopes 
will  be  his  life  companion,  soul  of  his  soul,  flesh 
of  his  flesh.  And  as  he  sits  down  to  write  there 
appears  before  him  a  beautiful  vision,  the  soft 
outlines  of  a  figure  hallowed  by  love,  or  the 
striking,  audacious  beauty  of  a  rebel  who  is 
adored.  He  takes  up  his  pen  and  the  crowding 
thoughts  and  emotions  drive  all  power  of  ex- 
pression from  his  mind.  He  thinks,  he  feels, 
he  loves,  but  words  fail  to  depict  his  passion. 

The  first  thing  is  restraint.  Until  the  emotion 
is  mastered,  it  cannot  be  expressed;  and  if  it  is 
desired  to  win  the  woman,  self-mastery  is  most 
certainly  the  thing  that  will  do  it.  A  woman 
will  very  seldom  trust  herself  to  an  entirely  aban- 
doned lover.  He  must  give  promise  of  the 
power  of  self-control. 

And  what  first  of  all  shall  a  man  talk  about  ? 
Why,  what  else  but  the  woman  herself!  The 
great  mistake  that  men  make  is  to  talk  of 
198 


MEN'S    LOVE     LETTERS 

themselves,  of  their  passion,  their  desire,  their 
devotion.  That  is  the  last  thing  to  talk  about. 
That  is  the  mistake  we  all  make  in  our  letter 
writing — we  talk  of  ourselves  rather  than  of 
and  for  the  person  to  whom  we  write.  Few 
women  will  not  read  with  pleasure  what  another 
says  of  them,  and  it  is  only  when  the  writer 
comes  to  the  boring  topic  of  himself  that  the 
letter  goes  into  the  wastebasket. 

And  what  shall  a  man  say  of  the  woman  he 
loves  ?  Perhaps  she  is  to  him  a  vision  too  mys- 
terious to  make  it  possible  for  him  to  talk  ration- 
ally about  her.  The  easy  way  to  begin  is  with 
describing  the  vision.  Then  there  are  all  the 
happy  days  of  the  past  to  recall  and  dwell  on, 
all  the  deep  problems  of  life  and  love  to  discuss 
and  apply  in  a  personal  way,  all  the  future  to 
picture  and  build  up  in  glorious  dreams.  The 
lover  may  reveal  his  inmost  emotions,  he  may 
talk  of  anything  that  is  delicate  and  beautiful 
and  true,  he  may  reveal  secrets  that  no  one 
else  has  ever  heard.  But  he  must  do  it  think- 
ing always  of  the  pleasure  or  the  pain  that  will 
199 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

be  caused  in  the  heart  of  the  reader.  His 
selection  of  the  things  that  will  give  pleasure,  his 
suppression  of  the  things  that  will  give  pain, 
will  show  the  measure  of  his  really  unselfish 
devotion.  A  passion  that  can  only  pour  out 
abuse  and  reproach  is  sure  to  be  selfish,  and 
is  seldom  rewarded  by  a  final  happy  outcome. 

Books  on  letter  writing  are  usually  con- 
sulted by  the  timid,  and  among  these  no  doubt 
will  be  some  who  will  wish  to  know  how  to  re- 
veal the  tender  emotion, —  in  other  words,  how 
to  propose. 

The  only  good  way  we  know  is  to  sit  down 
and  write  a  dozen  or  two  of  letters  saying  all 
that  can  be  said,  and  end  by  sending  some  brief 
and  simple  announcement,  such  as  "  Margaret, 
I  love  you.  Will  you  marry  me  ?  "  The  writer 
has  never  yet  met  the  woman  whose  curiosity 
and  interest  would  not  be  piqued  by  so  brief 
and  simple  a  letter  as  that. 

However,  the  great  thing  is  to  avoid  ele- 
gancies and  stiffness,  such  as  are  usually  given 
in  books  on  love-letter  writing,  and  say  in  the 
200 


MEN'S     LOVE     LETTERS 

simplest    possible   language   what   it   is    in    the 
heart  to  say. 

We  can  hardly  imagine  a  worse  form  than 
one  like  this: 

Miss  OBERLY: 

I  write  to  beg  the  humble  privilege  of  lay- 
ing my  heart  and  hand  at  your  feet.  My  heart 
is  burnt  up  with  love  for  you,  and  I  feel  that  I 
can  never  be  happy  unless  you  condescend  to 
vouchsafe  to  me  some  sign  of  your  regard.  I 
make  bold  to  ask  you  to  become  my  wife,  and 
to  accept  the  poor  life-service  which  I  can  give 
you.  Will  you  not  tell  me  soon  whether  I  have 
anything  to  hope  for. 

Affectionately  yours, 

All  such  forms  as  these  seem  stiff  and  un- 
natural when  compared  with  the  simple,  direct, 
natural  expression  of  one  real  heart  talking  to 
another  real  heart.  Each  case  has  an  individ- 
uality of  its  own  which  requires  a  letter  pecu- 
liarly its  own. 

201 


CHAPTER  VII 

WOMEN'S  LOVE  LETTERS 


CHAPTER  VII 

WOMEN'S  LOVE  LETTERS 

MOST  of  the  advice  that  men  give  to  women 
on  matters  pertaining  to  feminine  eti- 
quette and  propriety  has  seemed  to  us  slightly 
ridiculous,  or  at  any  rate  very  crude.  There  are 
women  who  give  advice  to  their  own  sex,  and  it 
seems  to  come  gracefully  enough  from  them;  but 
if  a  man  is  to  instruct  women  it  should  be  by  some 
more  indirect  and  subtle  method  than  plain  advice. 

The  writer  can,  however,  tell  what  kind  of 
letters  from  women  please  him  best  as  a  man. 
From  this  point  of  view  a  man  can  certainly 
speak  with  more  authority  than  any  woman, 
and  perhaps,  looking  at  the  matter  from  this 
point  of  view,  a  man  is  better  qualified  to  say 
what  is  wanted  than  any  one  else. 

We  like  the  graceful,  courteous,  kind  little 
notes  that  women  alone  seem  to  know  how  to 
205 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

write.  They  do  not  say  much,  the  woman 
never  seems  to  "give  herself  away,"  but  their 
grace,  their  liveliness,  and  their  kindness  always 
win  one. 

While  women  seem  to  like  to  have  their 
given  names  fondled,  so  to  speak,  in  a  letter,  we 
think  men  as  a  rule  do  not  care  so  much  for  this, 
and  the  woman  who  continues  to  write  "Dear 
Mr.  Oberly"  instead  of  "Dear  Frank"  long 
after  she  has  become  "  Dear  Margaret, "  loses 
nothing  in  a  man's  estimation.  The  thing  in  a 
letter  that  pleases  a  man  most,  however,  which 
is  like  a  kiss  upon  the  lips  at  meeting,  is  the  sign- 
ing of  a  woman's  given  or  pet  name.  This  is 
the  last  test  that  a  woman  may  use  to  find  out 
whether  she  really  is  loved  or  not,  for  the  man 
who  fails  to  respond  to  this  sign  of  affection  will 
probably  never  respond  to  anything. 

There  is  a  fiction  that  the  man  does  all  the 
wooing  and  the  woman  is  only  negatively  re- 
sponsive. In  a  majority  of  cases,  however,  it 
is  the  woman  who  does  the  active  courting, 
only  she  cannot  use  the  direct,  crude  methods 
206 


WOMEN'S     LOVE     LETTERS 

that  are  proper  for  a  man.  She  may  not  say 
"  I  love  you,  will  you  marry  me  ?  "  but  a  sudden 
rosy  flush  in  the  cheeks  on  some  auspicious 
occasion  may  proclaim  the  feeling  and  ask  the 
question  quite  as  effectively.  She  may  not 
whisper  "honeyed  nothings"  in  the  ear  of  her 
lover  the  third  or  fourth  time  she  meets  him, 
but  she  may  linger  with  him  at  the  door,  or  de- 
tain him  in  the  hallway  longer  than  is  precisely 
necessary,  and  the  effect  is  identically  the  same. 
She  may  not  allow  herself  to  press  his  hand  un- 
til he  has  acknowledged  his  love,  but  the  result 
is  the  same  if  she  lets  her  hand  rest  in  his  a 
second  or  two  when  she  might  have  with- 
drawn it. 

In  letter  writing  the  same  subtle  arts  are 
open  to  a  woman,  and  a  man  values  her  in  pro- 
portion as  she  understands  and  uses  them.  A 
woman  may  not  write  an  ardent  letter  to  a  man 
she  knows  but  slightly,  but  it  is  quite  within 
her  province  to  ask  him  tto  lend  her  a  book  and 
then  send  a  dainty  little  note  of  thanks,  filled 
with  her  pleasure  at  his  thoughtfulness.  Some 
207 


SUCCESS      IN     LETTER    WRITING 

may  condemn  this  as  hypocrisy,  but  it  is  a  kind 
of  hypocrisy  that  men  thoroughly  enjoy.  When 
dainty  little  notes  begin  to  arrive  at  a  man's 
house,  he  quickly  understands  what  they  mean 
quite  as  much  as  the  woman  understands  his 
thick  and  clumsy  letters.  Let  both  beware  not 
to  send  too  many. 

When  a  certain  point  of  intimacy  has  been 
reached  with  a  man,  many  woman  tell  their  love 
quite  as  frankly  and  straightforwardly  as  men 
do  themselves;  but  men  seldom  care  for  frank- 
ness of  this  kind  from  a  woman,  even  in  response 
to  their  own  frantic  appeals.  All  beauty  is 
more  alluring  when  seen  through  a  gauzy  veil, 
and  the  woman  who  veils  her  emotions,  how- 
ever thinly,  is  always  much  more  effective  than 
she  who  exposes  her  soul  in  crude  nudity. 

Suppose,  for  example,  a  situation  arises  in 
which  a  frank  discussion  of  personal  relations 
seems  imperatively  demanded,  The  barbaric 
way  is  to  state  it  bluntly;  the  refined  way  is 
to  present  it  as  a  case  in  a  novel,  the  situation 
of  a  friend,  or  the  like.  The  true  lover  will 
208 


WOMEN'S     LOVE     LETTERS 

quickly  see  the  meaning,  and  the  man  who  fails 
to  see  it  is  better  let  alone  or  given  over  as  a 
hopeless  case. 

But  when  once  a  woman  is  engaged  to  a 
man  she  really  loves,  then  comes  the  opportunity 
for  the  fullest  and  frankest  self-revelation  and 
tender  expression.  What  she  says  is  as  if  whis- 
pered to  her  own  soul;  and  as  her  confidence 
in  her  lover  grows,  she  will  be  able  to  say  more 
and  more,  and  there  will  be  no  danger  that  it  will 
be  misunderstood. 

A  few  years  ago  a  book  appeared  entitled 
"An  English  Woman's  Love  Letters,"  pur- 
porting to  be  the  actual  letters  of  a  real  woman. 
It  afterward  developed  that  the  book  was  written 
by  a  man,  and  many  of  the  critics  ridiculed  it; 
but  the  writer  always  felt  that  they  were  the 
kind  of  letters  a  woman  would  have  written, 
and  judging  as  a  man,  knows  of  no  better  letters 
to  serve  as  models  here.  The  following  is  the 
first  letter  in  the  series: 

"  Beloved,  —  This  is  the  first  letter  from  me, 
yet  it  is  not  the  first  I  have  written  you.     There 
209 


SUCCESS      IN      LETTER     WRITING 

are  letters  to  you  lying  at  Love's  dead-letter  office 
in  this  same  writing  —  so  many  my  memory  has 
lost  count  of  them! 

"  This  is  my  confession :  I  told  you  I  had  one 
to  make,  and  you  laughed:  you  did  not  know 
how  serious  it  was  for  me  to  be  in  love  with 
you  long  before  you  were  in  love  with  me, — 
nothing  can  be  more  serious  than  that! 

"  You  deny  that  I  was :  yet  I  know  when  you 
first  really  loved  me.  All  at  once,  one  day  some- 
thing about  me  came  upon  you  as  a  surprise: 
and  how,  except  on  the  road  to  love,  can  there 
be  surprises?  And  in  the  surprise  came  love. 
You  did  not  know  me  before.  Before  then,  it 
was  only  the  other  nine  entanglements  which 
take  hold  of  the  male  heart  and  occupy  it 
till  the  tenth  is  ready  to  make  one  knot  of 
them  all. 

"  In  the  letter  written  that  day  I  said,  '  You 
love  me.'  I  could  never  have  said  it  before; 
though  I  had  written  twelve  letters  of  my  love 
for  you,  I  had  not  once  been  able  to  write  of 
your  love  for  me.  Was  not  that  serious  ? 
210 


WOMEN'S     LOVE     LETTERS 

"  Now  I  have  confessed !  I  thought  to  discover 
myself  all  blushes,  but  my  face  is  cool :  you  have 
kissed  all  my  blushes  away!  Can  I  ever  be 
ashamed  in  your  eyes  now,  or  grow  rosy  because 
of  anything  you  think  or  I  think?  So! — you 
have  robbed  me  of  one  of  my  charms:  I  am 
brazen.  Can  you  love  me  still  ? 

"You  love  me,  you  love  me;  you  are  wonder- 
ful! we  are  both  wonderful,  you  and  I. 

"  Well,  it  is  good  for  you  to  know  that  I  have 
waited  and  wished,  long  before  the  thing  came 
true.  But  to  see  you  waiting  and  wishing 
when  the  thing  was  true  all  the  time  —  oh !  that 
was  the  trial!  How  not  suddenly  to  throw  my 
arms  around  your  neck  and  cry,  'Look,  see! 
O  blind  mouth,  why  are  you  famished?' 

"  And  you  never  knew  ?  Dearest,  I  love  you 
for  it.  You  never  knew!  I  believe  a  man,  when 
he  finds  he  has  won,  thinks  he  has  taken  the  city 
by  assault:  he  does  not  guess  how  to  the  in- 
siders it  has  been  a  weary  siege,  with  flags  of 
surrender  fluttering  themselves  to  rags  from 
every  wall  and  window!  No:  in  love  it  is  the 
211 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

women  who  are  the  strategists;  and  they  have 
at  last  to  fall  into  the  ambush  they  know  of  with 
a  good  grace. 

"  You  must  let  me  praise  myself  a  little  for 
the  past,  since  I  can  never  praise  myself  again. 
You  must  do  that  for  me  now!  There  is  not  a 
battle  left  for  me  to  win.  You  and  peace  hold 
me  so  much  a  prisoner,  have  so  caught  me  from 
my  own  way  of  living,  that  I  seem  to  hear  a  pin 
drop  twenty  years  ahead  of  me:  it  seems  an 
event!  Dearest,  a  thousand  times,  I  would 
not  have  it  otherwise:  I  am  only  too  willing 
to  drop  out  of  existence  altogether,  and  find  my- 
self in  your  arms  instead.  Giving  you  my  love, 
I  can  so  easily  give  you  my  life.  Ah,  my  dear, 
I  am  yours  so  utterly,  so  gladly!  Will  you  ever 
find  it  out,  you,  who  took  so  long  to  discover 
anything  ?  " 

If  I  were  to  recommend  a  book  of  model 
love  letters  to  those  desirous  of  finding  the  best 
models,  I  would  suggest  the  love  letters  of 
Robert  and  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning.  Few 

212 


WOMEN'S     LOVE     LETTERS 

of  us  will  have  the  power  of  literary  expression 
which  they  had;  but  if  we  are  to  make  any 
progress  we  must  choose  models  considerably 
beyond  us. 


213 


CHAPTER  VIII 
MODEL  LETTERS  OF  FRIENDSHIP 


CHAPTER  VIII 

MODEL  LETTERS  OF  FRIENDSHIP 

NOT  long  ago  there  appeared  a  small  volume 
of  Ruskin's  "Letters  to  M.  G.  and  H.  G., * 
which  have  seemed  to  me  the  highest  models  of 
charm  in  social  letter  writing.  I  cannot  better 
conclude  this  book  than  by  quoting  three  or 
four  of  these  letters : 

ARTHUR  SEVERN'S,  HERNE  HILL,  S.  E., 
WEDNESDAY,  24TH  JULY,  1878. 

My  dear  M , 

Please  send  me  just  a  little 

line,  and  tell  me  what  time  dinner  is  to-morrow. 
Of  course  that 's  only  an  excuse  to  get  a  little 

note,  and  be  able  to  tell  F that  I  Ve  got  one, 

because  I  could  as  easily  ask  at  the  door;  but 

you  may  as  well  have  my  London  address  in 

case  you  have  any  orders  for  me.     The  doctors 

217 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

say  I  never  obey  orders,  and,  of  course,  I  never 
do  any  of  theirs.     But  there  are  some  orders  I 
am  too  obedient  to,  for  the  peace  of  my  old  age! 
Ever  gratefully  and  affectionately  yours, 

J.    RUSKIN. 

Of  course  the  names  in  this  letter  were  writ- 
ten in  full,  not  as  initials.  And  it  is  to  be  re- 
membered that  this  was  sent  from  an  old  man 
to  a  young  woman  to  whom  he  wished  to  pay 
graceful  little  compliments, —  none  other  than  the 
daughter  of  Gladstone. 

NATIONAL  GALLERY, 
FRIDAY,  28-TH  JULY,  1878. 

My  dear  M , 

You  were  a  perfect  little 

Mother  to  me  last  night.  I  didn't  feel  safe  a 
moment  except  when  I  was  close  to  you.  Look 
here,  I've  got  notice  from  George  Richmond 
and  Acland  saying  they  're  both  going  to  try  to 
find  me  this  afternoon.  And  I  should  like  to 
see  them,  and  have  that  music  to  hope  for  all 
218 


LETTERS    OF     FRIENDSHIP 

this  evening  and  to-morrow  morning;  and,  be- 
sides, I  want  you  to  give  me  a  cup  of  tea  this 
afternoon  at  five,  and  if  you  can't,  you  can't, 
and  never  mind;  but  I'll  just  ask  at  the  door, 
and  it's  of  no  consequence,  as  Mr.  Toots  says. 
You  can't  tell  me  you  can't,  till  I  ask  at  the 
door;  because  I  don't  know  where  I  shall  be. 
And  I  '11  come  for  my  music  at  three,  to-morrow, 
instead,  and  you  needn't  say  I  may,  because 
I  must  and  will. 

And  I  'm  ever  your  devoted, 

J.  RUSKIN. 

What  prettier  letter  of  apology  than  the  fol- 
lowing : 

BRANTWOOD,  CONISTON,  LANCASHIRE, 
SUNDAY,  SOrn  SEPTEMBER,  1878. 

My  dear  M— , 

How   dreadfully  I've  be- 
haved to   you;   it  ss    not  all  F 's  fault,  but 

partly  her  ponies'  fault,  who  bewildered  me  by 

standing  on  their  hind  legs,  or  going    eighteen 

miles  an  hour;  and  partly  the  dogs'  fault,  who  are 

219 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER    WRITING 

always  getting  between  my  legs,  or  pulling  my 
hair,  or  licking  my  face;  and  partly  her  place's 
fault,  which  is  really  too  pretty  and  too  good  for 
her  or  anybody  else,  and  drove  me  half  crazy  again 
because  I  couldn't  paint  it  up  and  down  and  both 
sides  everywhere;  and  partly  her  people's  fault, 
who  wanted  to  "show"  me  things,  and  wouldn't 
understand  that  it  was  a  vain  show,  and  that  my 
heart  was  disquieted  within  me;  and  partly  my 
own  fault.  (I  meant  to  have  said  "of  course," 
but  shouldn't  have  meant  it.)  And  so  I  did  n't 
answer  your  letter;  and  now  here's  your  for- 
giving— partly  forgiving,  at  least  —  but  laconic 
note,  and,  of  course,  I  deserve  it  —  them,  I  mean, 
—  both  the  forgiveness  and  the  Laconianism. 

Well,  yes,  I  can  come  on  the  9th,  or  on  the 
10th,  or  on  any  day  you  want  me,  pretty  nearly. 
("You"  is  to  have  an  emphasis,  mind,  but  I've 
underlined  too  many  words  already.)  But  what 

does  the  Duke  of  A want  to  see   me  for? 

He  used  to  be  so  grim,  at   the   Metaphysical, 

I  never  ventured  within   the   table's  length   of 

him.    But  look  here — you  know  (emphasis  on 

220 


LETTERS     OF     FRIENDSHIP 

"you"  again)  that,  though  I  shall  mightily  like 
studying  woodcraft  with  Papa  —  Papa  wouldn't 
have  got  me  to  Hawarden  all  by  himself,  and 

Mr.  G ,  you  know,  wouldn't  have  got  me 

to  Dunira  all  by  himself — and  I  should  very 
much  like  to  meet  the  Duke,  of  course,  yes  — 
but  .  .  .  Please  do  you  know  if  M.  C.  's  coming 
too? 

You  see  I  can  come  on  the  10th,  but  after 
this  time  of  utter  do-nothingness  at  Dunira, 
I  really  want  to  see  a  little  bit  of  and  about  books 
(they're  all  standing  on  their  hind  legs  at  present, 
and  the  printer  's  rabid).  And  I  meant,  really 
and  truly,  to  have  written  this  morning  to  say 
I  was  at  Mr.  Gladstone's  orders  from  the  25th 
on;  but  now  I'll  do  just  what  you  tell  me  will 
be  exemplary,  and  what  I  ought  to  do,  and  that 
is,  come  whenever  you  please,  not  before  the 
10th.  But,  quite  seriously,  I  cannot  stay  more 
than  two  or  three  days  at  utmost,  for  I  am  indeed 
not  well,  and  the  excitement  of  conversation 
breaks  me  or  bends  me,  banefully  always.  This 
was  so  even  before  my  illness,  and  you  know  if 
221 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER     WRITING 

Mrs.  W had  not  forced  me,  I  never  should 

have  ventured  to  Hawarden,  and  you  must  be  a 
dear  good  little  Mother  to  me,  and  take  care  of 
me  every  minute  all  the  while  I  am  there.  Love 
to  Papa,  though,  and  very  true  and  respectful 
regards  to  Mrs.  Gladstone,  and  I  'm  ever, 
Your  obedient  and  affectionate, 

J.  RUSKIN. 

AMIENS, 

28TH  OCTOBER,  1880. 
My  darling  little  Madonna, 

You   are  really 

gratia  plena  (don't  be  shocked,  I  am  writing 
about  the  Saints  all  day,  just  now,  and  don't 
know  when  I'm  talking  quite  properly  to  my 
pets),  but  it  is  unspeakably  sweet  of  your  Father 
and  you  to  forgive  me  so  soon,  and  I'm  inclined 
to  believe  anything  you  '11  tell  me  of  him,  after 
that;  only,  you  know,  I'm  a  great  believer  in 
goodness,  and  fancy  there  are  many  people  who 
ought  to  be  canonized  who  never  are;  so  that  — 
be  a  man  ever  so  good  —  I'm  not  idolatrous  of 
222 


LETTERS    OF     FRIENDSHIP 

him.  If  it's  a  Madonna,  it's  another  thing, 
you  know,  but  I  never  for  an  instant  meant  any 
comparison  or  likeness  between  D.  and  your 
Father  —  they  merely  had  to  be  named  as  they 
were  questioned  of.  On  the  other  hand,  I  know 
nothing  about  D.  whatsoever,  but  have  a  lurk- 
ing tenderness  about  him  because  my  own  father 
had  a  liking  for  him,  and  was  in  great  grief  about 
my  first  political  letter  —  twenty  (or  thirty?) 
years  ago — which  was  a  fierce  attack  upon 
him. 

I  do  trust  nothing  more  will  ever  cause  you 
to  have  doubt  or  pain.  I  can't  get  what  I  have 
to  say  said;  I  'm  tired  to-day  —  have  found  out 
things  very  wonderful,  and  had — with  your  let- 
ter at  last  —  more  pleasure  than  I  can  bear  with- 
out breaking  down. 

Dear  love  to  your  father. 

Ever  your  grateful, 

St.  C.  * 


*  St.  Chrysostom—  St.  John  the  Golden-mouthed  — was  a  nick- 
name given  Mr.  Ruskin  by  Mrs.  Cowper  Temple. 


SUCCESS     IN     LETTER      WRITING 

These  are  the  graceful  little  notes  that  women 
write  so  well  and  men  enjoy  so  much.  But  men 
can  write  them  too,  as  Ruskin  demonstrates. 


THE    END 


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